The Transcollation: Short Hospitals Stay and Accelerated Recovery in Total Hip and Knee Arthroplasties Using a Radiofrequency Bipolar Sealer - an Innovative Approach in the Conceptualization of the Surgical Gesture

To obtain a safe surgical procedure, hemostasis is a requirement. Nowadays use of electro cautery is commonness, but at the detriment of local tissue damage due to the thermal injury and charring. The transcollation using a bipolar sealer associated with a saline irrigation provide radiofrequency energy to the tissues, it obtains a superior hemostasis through a denaturation of the collagen and elastin contained in the vessel’s wall and sealing them by contraction. The much lower temperature (100°C versus 300°C for the electro cautery) reduce charring, decrease the tissue necrosis, decrease blood loss with no toxic smoke production. A prospective study including 60 cases of minimal invasive total hip and knee arthroplasties. The results show less risk of blood transfusion, an accelerated functional recovery due to the tissue preservation. For the global (age 71, range 53 to 90) population, the length of stay was three days shorter, no complication was noticed, no readmission.