Investigating the effects of prophylactic dexamethasone administration before surgery on the prevalence of sore throat during the first 24 hours after anesthesia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Several recent clinical trials have investigated the effect of prophylactic administration of dexamethasone after extubation on sore throat after surgery, and their results have not yet been presented in a coherent study. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effects of preoperative dexamethasone prophylactic administration on the prevalence of sore throat during the first 24 hours after anesthesia.

This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis; Based on this, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Mag Iran and SID were used to search for eligible studies based on the keywords prevention, surgery, post-surgery, post-anesthesia, sore throat and dexamethasone.

A review of articles using a forest diagram for the incidence of sore throat after surgery in 24 hours after surgery or intubation showed a decrease in the incidence of sore throat in patients treated with intravenous dexamethasone compared to the control group (normal saline) (62/ 0=RR- 0.51-0.75: 95% CI- 0.001. P= df=7). (Figure 1)

Our study shows that administration of intravenous dexamethasone 15 minutes before extubation reduces postoperative sore throat more effectively.