That's the learning curve. When the residents start doing tonsillectomy, it usually takes ten or fifteen cases before becoming very efficient. These are second-year residents that just started to learn to do a tonsillectomy. For an established head and neck surgeon who already knows how to do a tonsillectomy, it will probably take about five to learn the procedure cautiously to encounter no bleeding. One word of caution.
Prevention is better than cure.
It's better to not encounter bleeding. That means to go slow instead of going fast. You may have to spend five extra minutes going slow, but if you don't encounter bleeding, that's much more desirable than if you face a bleeder, then try to stop the bleeding. Once you encounter a bleeder, it gets harder and harder to stop the bleeding. The reason for that is when you use the harmonic scalpel, when trying to stop a bleeding area, you have to have a solid support against the blade.