Ultrasonic Coagulator for Thyroidectomy: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objective: To evaluate the effect of ultrasonic coagulator for thyroidectomy. Methods: randomized controlled trials were searched in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, SCI, Chinese Biomedical Database, China Academic Journals Full-Text Database, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, and China Online Journals. The authors evaluated the quality of included studies by Handbook 5.0.0, and analyzed data by Cochrane Collaboration's RevMan 5.0. Results: A total of 11 RCTs with 1420 patients met the criteria. Between ultrasonic coagulator and conventional technique, there were significant differences in operative time of total thyroidectomy (P < .00001) and amount of intraoperative bleeding (P = .02). There were no significant differences in operative time of part thyroidectomy (P = .07), amount of postoperative drainage (P = .18), cases of transient hypocalcemia (P = .41), cases of transient recurrent nerve paresis (P = .21), and total cost in hospital (P = .08). Conclusions: Current studies demonstrate that ultrasonic coagulator has a significant reduction on the operating time of total thyroidectomy and the amount of intraoperative bleeding in thyroidectomy, without increasing complications and total cost in hospital.