Postoperative sore throat after oral surgery under endotrachial intubations; influence of the pharyngeal pack

ABSTRACT

To investigate the effect of the presence of pharyngeal pack during endotrachial intubations general anesthesia on the incidence of postoperative sore throat. This study was carried out on 60 patients aged 16 to 70 years in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Mayo Hospital Lahore during 20-12-2004 to 19-12.-2005. Patients were randomly divided in to two groups A and B, of 30 each. In-group A, 30 patients were inserted throat pack while in-group B, 30 patients with out throat packs. After induction of anesthesia, size 6.5 to 7.0 mm internal diameter portex endotracheal tubes with cuff were used for females while 7.5 to 8.5 internal diameters were used for males. The presence of sore throat was determined just after recovering from anesthesia and 24 hours after operation. Out of sixty patients, forty-three patients [71%] experienced sore throat after operation. the incidence of sore throat were similar in both groups. There was no statically significant difference with P<0.05. Our results are same as that of other international study. Postoperative sore throat is not related to pharyngeal pack. There is need to further evaluate if the use of smaller sized endotracheal tubes could reduce the incidence of throat complications