A comparative study of ketamine gargle and lidocaine jelly application for the prevention of postoperative throat pain following general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation

Abstract

Background: Postoperative throat pain is an established complication of general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation. We thus sought to determine the incidence of postoperative throat pain and the efficacy of lidocaine jelly and ketamine gargle in the prevention of postoperative throat pain.

Materials and Method: One hundred and fifty ASA I or II, male: female ratio of 1:2 patients, aged18 -64 year, scheduled for elective general surgery requiring general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation were randomly recruited into two groups, ketamine (K group) and lidocaine (L group). Group K received ketamine gargle (40 mg in 30 ml normal saline) for 30 sec, five minutes before induction of anaesthesia, while Group L received 2% lidocaine jelly applied to the ETT cuff and 30 ml normal saline was gargled for 30 sec, five minutes before induction of anaesthesia.

Results: Postoperative throat pain was defined as pain present with swallowing and it was assessed using verbal rating scale. Time from extubation to onset of postoperative throat pain was significantly longer for patients in K group compared to the lidocaine group, P<0.01. Group L patients recorded a higher occurrence of moderate to severe pain (44.1% vs. 23.5%) as against group K with 58.3% no pain and 36.5% mild pain, P< 0.01. The overall incidence of postoperative throat pain for the study was 55.4%.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated that ketamine gargle has more protection against moderate to severe postoperative pain as compared to topical lidocaine jelly. Patients undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation will benefit from ketamine gargle five minutes before induction of anaesthesia as prophylaxis against postoperative throat pain.

Keywords: Postoperative throat pain, ketamine gargle, lidocaine, general anesthesia