With the deployment of a merit function combining the first and second laws of thermodynamics, we delineate the possibilities of exploiting interfacial slip towards improving the thermodynamic performance of microscale swirling flows to a considerable extent. Our studies further reveal that an arrest in the increment in thermodynamic irreversibility relative to the rate of augmentation in the transport of thermal energy tends to get more prominently manifested with progressively increasing levels of inlet swirl, for a given slip. We also show that the thermodynamic performance, for a given inlet swirl, improves with progressively increasing levels of interfacial slip. Our results bear far-ranging scientific and technological consequences towards deriving optimal thermodynamic performance from microfluidic systems with high levels of intrinsic rotationalities. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.