Postoperative Sore Throat, Nausea and Vomiting in Routine Nasal Surgery: Influence of Pharyngeal packing

Pharyngeal packs are commonly used to prevent of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) and Sore throat during nasal surgery following tracheal intubation. the aim of this study is evaluation of effectiveness of pharyngeal packing in the prevention of PONV.This study with random sampling performed on 120 adult patients scheduled for routine nasal surgery referred Boo – Ali hospital in Tehran, Iran from March 2011 to March 2012. the study was approved in the ethical committee of Azad University and written informed consent to participate in the study. All subjects randomly allocated to Group A or Group B to have and not to have pharyngeal packing during surgery, Respectively.The incidence of PONV and sore throat in the recovery room,at 2 and 6 h were recorded by a 100 mm long visual analogue scale (VAS). Data were analysed using non-parametric tests in SPSS 18. Significant difference was set at p<0.05. The average age of patients was 27.6 ± 7.1 years. The average of age in Group A was 29.2 ± 2.8 years and in Group B was 27.4 ± 3.2 years. The difference in throat pain scores in the two groups at each assessment time was statistically significant. The difference in PONV scores were not statistically significant. The usage of pharyngeal packing during nasal surgery leads to decreased incidence of sore throat in experiment group compared with the control group. Also has no effect on the incidence of PONV.