Effect of postoperative dexamethasone on pain, emesis and haemorrhage in tonsillectomy by dissection method

ABSTRACT

To compare the effect of postoperative intravenous dose of dexamethasone on morbidity in patients undergoing tonsillectomy. Randomized control trial. This study was conducted in ENT Department Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital [CMH] Muzaffarabadfrom 10[th] Jan 2010 to 15[th] Feb 2011. After getting informed consent, a total of 60 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected and tonsillectomy by dissection method was carried out. They were divided into two groups of 30 eachusing a random numbers table. Group A received 0.25 mg/kg body weight [maximum 20 mg] of Dexamethasone postoperatively intravenously for 03 days while group B [control group] did not receive any steroid. In group A, 80% patients had mild pain, 16.7% had moderate pain and 3.3% had a severe pain while in group B, 30% patients had mild pain, 6.7% had moderate pain and 63.3% had severe pain [p< 0.05]. In group A, 76.7% patients had mild emesis while in group B, 86.7% had moderate emesis [p< 0.05]. There was an insignificant difference in secondary hemorrhage. Dexamethasone given postoperatively significantly reduces the morbidity that is pain, episodes of emesis thus early recovery to a normal lifestyle with no effect on secondary hemorrhage in patients undergoing Tonsillectomy by dissection method: