BackgroundPostoperative sore throat is the most frequent complication in pediatric patients after general anesthesia. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of postoperative sore throat in patients undergoing general anesthesia with tracheal intubation or laryngeal mask airway.MethodsA hospital-based multicenter prospective observational cohort study was conducted. Proportional allocation was done with a total of 424 patients from March 1 to June 30, 2022. The information was entered into the Epi-Data software version 4.6 and analyzed with Stata 14. Socio–demographic, surgical, and anesthetic-related characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A p-value of less than 0.2 was the cutpoint of bivariate logistic regression analysis, and p-values of less than 0.05 were regarded as statistically significant in multivariate logistic regression to determine the presence and strength of association between independent variables and postoperative sore throat.ResultsA total of 411 patients were included in this study, with a response rate of 96.9%. The overall proportion of patients who developed postoperative sore throat was 45% (95% CI: 40.18–49.84). Patients who had anesthesia for more than two hours (AOR = 8.23: 95% CI = 4.08–16.5), those who were intubated by undergraduate anesthesia students (AOR = 2.67: 95% CI = 1.53–4.67), and those who had been intubated using tracheal tube (AOR = 2.38: 95% CI = 1.15–4.92) were significantly associated with the level of postoperative sore throat.Conclusions and recommendationsWe concluded that intubated children with ETT have a high incidence of post-operative sore throat. Tracheal tube usage, intubation by undergraduate students, and more than two hours of anesthesia duration were associated factors. The incidence of sore throat can be decreased with the use of a laryngeal mask airway, intubation by a senior anesthetist, and shortening of anesthesia time.

Background Obtaining preoperative informed consent is considered an integral part of modern clinical practice. It works as a safeguard of the patient’s rights and minimizes the chances of legal action against the surgical team members. This study was to evaluate the practice of informed consent in patients undergoing elective surgery. Methods The study was approved by the ethical committee of the school of medicine. The patients were reassured about the anonymity of their information. A study was conducted at different surgical departments of a teaching university hospital for one month. Participants were selected based on consecutive sampling from patients over the age of 18 years who had undergone elective surgery. Results The overall adherence of our study to standard guidelines was 48.5%. During informed consent, 51% of patients were informed about their current condition; 49% of patients were informed about the nature and purpose of the proposed surgery; and 25% of patients were informed about the estimated duration of surgery and anesthesia. Conclusion and recommendation The overall adherence of our study to standard guidelines was 48.5%. The quality of the makeshift informed consent process in this study is less than the standards. There is a great need to educate the surgical team members regarding the importance of patients’ autonomy and their right to information about the proposed surgical procedure and anesthesia. Highlights