Comparison between Betamethasone Gel, Lidocaine Jelly and Lubricating Jelly Applied Over Endotracheal Tube to Reduce Post Operative Sore Throat, Cough and Hoarseness of Voice?-Randomised Prospective Study

INTRODUCTION General anaesthesia is commonly performed procedure in Anaesthesiology practice. The artificial maintenance of airway is the essence of airway maintenance since anesthetized patients are unable to maintain an adequate airway voluntarily. All the patients who were intubated for long term or short term operations, experience some degrees of airway injury. Post-operative sore throat, cough and hoarseness of the voice are often common, uncomfortable sequelae after tracheal intubation. The prevalence of these complications were reported to be around 21 % - 65 % as per the literature available. Even though these complications are minor they contribute significantly to the post-operative morbidity, patient dissatisfaction and may decrease the patient satisfaction with their anaesthetic and surgical experience METHODOLOGY One fifty three ASA I or II patients scheduled for elective surgery under endotracheal general anaesthesia were randomly allocated into three groups. Tracheal tubes were lubricated with either 2 % lidocaine jelly (LJ) or betamethsone gel or lubricating gel for the groups and the patients were interviewed at 1, 6, 12 and 24 hours post extubation RESULTS Water based lubricating jelly group had lower incidence of sore throat, cough and hoarseness of voice in comparison to Betamethasone gel group which had lower incidence in comparison to lidocaine jelly group CONCLUSION Hence water based jelly group could be a better lubricating agent for Endotracheal intubation in comparison with 2 % lidocaine jelly group and 0.05 % Betamethasone gel group