OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: Post operative sore throat (POST) is a common complication of tracheal intubation after general anaesthesia with a wide incidence of 6.6-90%. It is an undesirable, distressing post operativesequelae after tracheal intubation. We investigated the effectiveness of 2%lignocaine jelly, water soluble jelly and tramadol gargles on POST.

METHODS: In a randomised, prospective double blind study, 60 ASA 1 and 2 female patients undergoing general anaesthesia for laparoscopic surgeries were chosen. Patients were divided randomly into 4 groups. In the first group tracheal tubes were lubricated with 2%lignocaine jelly (L), second group water soluble jelly (w), third group inj. tramadol gargle (2mg/kg) in 30ml of water administered 15 minutes before surgery (T) and the fourth group Control (C). We compared these groups for dryness, throat pain, dysphonia, aphonia, cough and fever at 1hr, 12 hrs and 24 hrs post extubation.

RESULTS: We carried out Chi square test for independence of attributes used level of significance alpha=0.05. Demographic data in the four groups were comparable. The incidence of sore throat with Group C, W and T were significantly reduced compared to group L at 1 hr (p< 0.05). Likewise throat pain was significantly higher in the L group (p<0.05). Dryness and throat pain were comparable among group C, W, T, but these were not statistically significant. We observed throat pain in 6.6 % patients in group T which was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION: Water soluble jelly, tramadol gargle or no jelly are superior to 2% lignocaine jelly in prevention of POST.