The Effect of Ice Cream Intake on Pain Relief for Patients After Tonsillectomy

Abstract

The post-tonsillectomy pain can lead to a decrease in fluid and food intake, followed by dehydration, which can slow down the repair process and make pain control harder. Different groups of analgesics have their own side effects. Therefore, the consideration of nonpharmacological ways to control pain can be of great value such as ice cream and other cold drinks. Aim The purpose behind this study is to assess whether the use of ice cream after tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy in children reduces pain in the immediate postoperative period, as well as to compare the effect of ice cream and diet at room temperature on post-tonsillectomy pain in children. Materials and methods Each patient's post-operative pain was evaluated and assessed by nursing staff prior to discharge using two reliable pain scale: FLACC scale (F: Face, L: Legs, A: Activity, C: Cry, C: Consolability) for patient less than seven years and Wong Baker pain scale (Face 0, very happy because he doesn't hurt, Face 1, hurts a little bit, Face 2, hurts a little more, Face 3, hurts even more, Face 4, hurts a whole lot, Face 5, hurts as much as you can imagine, although you do not have to be crying to fell this bad) for patient more than seven years. Results The ice cream intake is significantly associated with having no pain (p-value 0.014). In univariate regression, compared to preschool, school-aged children have significant effect with the ice cream intake postoperatively (OR = 0.286, p-value 0.039) while sex and instrument used to assess pain score were having no significant effect with the ice cream intake postoperatively. Conclusion Further research is needed in order to validate the effectivity of ice cream intakes after tonsillectomy in our region.

Effect of tonsillar fossa cooling with cold saline on early post-tonsillectomy pain: A randomized, double-blind controlled study

“…Non-pharmacological techniques such as behavioural and assimilated therapies, iced water drinking or rinsing the tonsillar fossae with cold saline, mouthwash with benzydamide hydrochloride, hydrogen peroxide, or lidocaine, chewing gum, consumption of honey, ice-cream, and cold diet, speech therapy, and acupuncture have been tried in different clinical settings. [5][6][7] The number of trials exploring the efficacy of non-pharmacological treatments are limited, and results are inconclusive. Intraoperative irrigation of tonsillar fossae and pharyngeal mucosa with cold saline after tonsillectomy has been reported to reduce immediate postoperative pain.…”