Effectiveness of Eutectic Mixture of Local Anesthetics in Preventing Postoperative Sore Throat

Abstract

Letters to the Editor intraoperatively, which opioid was used for maintenance and when it was withdrawn. There is compelling evidence that the judicious application of opioids can significantly suppress the cough response which may reduce the irritation and injury to the airway mucosa from the tracheal tube. 3 Third, paracetamol was routinely administered postoperatively, and tramadol was administered as a rescue analgesic. The use of these 2 analgesics has the potential to underestimate the incidence of POST as compared to the actual incidence.An imbalance in any of these factors between the patient groups may lead to bias in the results. We hope that the authors would clarify these issues, which would help interpret their findings.

In Response

“…Finally, we agree with Sun and Yang 1 that the paracetamol (acetaminophen) and tramadol, which were used for postoperative analgesia in our study 2 may have reduced the incidence of POST. However, the use of these medications was uniform and comparable in both groups and unlikely to impact the results.…”

“…3 We included both laparoscopic and open surgeries which were evenly distributed in the 2 groups. 2 The increase in the incidence of POST in the study by Geng et al 3 cited by Sun and Yang 1 was primarily due to increased cuff pressures (maximum 35.2 ± 3.4 mm Hg ≈ 47.85 cm H 2 O) in the laparoscopy group. The study’s authors did not mention any steps to reduce the tracheal cuff pressures during surgery.…”

“…We thank Sun and Yang 1 for their interest in our study. They have raised 3 methodological questions regarding our study, 2 and we would like to respond to each of them.…”

“…The second concern highlighted by Sun and Yang 1 is intraoperative fentanyl use, which causes cough suppression during extubation or in the early recovery period and may therefore impact POST and cough. However, the cough suppression in the study by Son et al 4 cited by Sun and Yang 1 was primarily due to remifentanil. The group that received fentanyl had more incidence and severity of cough.…”