title: Throat pain and pharyngeal packing: a controlled randomized double-blind comparison between gauze and tampons.
abstract: In order to determine whether patients having pharyngeal packing experience more or less post-operative throat pain when tampons were used, 80 patients were randomized into two groups to receive either gauze or tampon pharyngeal packing. A third control group of 40 patients were intubated but did not have any throat packs. Post-operative throat pain was subjectively rated at both 6 hours and at 24 hours by an independent observer. Thirty-eight per cent of patients had moderate or severe throat pain in the gauze group, whilst in the tampon and control groups these amounted to only 15% and 1% respectively. A significantly higher proportion of patients also had a moderate or severe sore throat at 24 hours in the former group. Intubation alone resulted in a sore throat post-operatively in 50% of patients, but 85% of those had a mild sore throat only. No differences in pain ratings in any group could be shown between men or women or between age groupings. Endotracheal intubation often causes post-operative throat pain which is exacerbated by the use of pharyngeal packing. The results presented suggest that tampons are a safe, effective alternative to gauze and result in less severe post-operative throat pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marais
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Prescott
mesh_terms: D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007013:Hypopharynx / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013630:Tampons, Surgical