Comparison of the Incidence of Sore Throat After General Anaesthesia and Endotracheal Intubation in Early Post-Operatively Period for Abdominal Surgeries who are Given Normal Saline and Dexamethasone

Abstract

Aim: To compare the incidence of sore throat in the initial postoperative period in patients experiencing general anaesthesia and endotracheal intubation for surgery of the abdomen using normal saline and dexamethasone. Study design: A Randomized-Controlled trial Place and Duration: In the Department of Anaesthesiology, Divisional Headquarter teaching Hospital Mirpur Azad Kashmir for six months duration from June 2021 to November 2021. Methodology: 110 patients enduring planned for abdominal surgery under general anaesthesia were included. They 2 groups of the patients were made with equal number of patients. Group I were given 8 mg (2 ml) of dexamethasone I.V before surgery, and 2 ml of saline I.V was given in group II before surgery. The two groups pain comparison was done with chi-square test. The sore throat grading was done with visual analogue scale (VAS). ≤ 4 VAS score was accepted as no sore-throat and a VAS score> 4 as sore-throat. Results: The incidence of postoperative sore throat was lower in group (I) than in control group (II) after the first 24 hours after GA and endotracheal intubation. In this study, nine (16.4%) patients out of 55 who received pre-operative doses of I.V dexamethasone had sore throat post-operatively compared to the control group, i.e., 30 (54.5%) subjects, and the variance was statistically significant (p <0.01). Conclusions: Preoperative usage of dexamethasone was related with a lower frequency of postoperative sore-throat. Keywords: General anaesthesia, visual analogue scale (VAS) and postoperative sore-throat,