Laparoscopic splenectomy: ligasure or clip ligation?

Laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) is frequently performed for spleen removal under pathologic conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether ligasure is superior to clip ligation during LS. In a simple randomized prospective study, 40 patients who were candidates for splenectomy were randomly assigned to 2 groups of clip and ligasure. Operating time, need for transfusion, intraoperative and postoperative bleeding, open conversion, and postoperative complications were evaluated. Operating time was 115.4 min (SD 15.24) in the clip group and 100.6 min (SD 16.05) in the ligasure group (P=0.005). Bleeding volume was 150.9 mL (SD 26.2) in the clip group and 131.7 mL (SD 25.1) in the ligasure group (P=0.025). In both groups, there was no need for transfusion and no conversion to the open approach. Although both clip and ligasure can be used for vascular control in LS, hemostasis is simply and easily achieved with little dissection using the ligasure method. Therefore, ligasure is superior to clip in cases of LS.