Postoperative Sore Throat: More Answers Than Questions
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EDITORIAL Postoperative Sore Throat: More Answers Than Questions Phillip E. Scuderi, MD ostoperative sore throat (POST) is a common adverse oral airway). The site or sites of mucosal injury would event after general anesthesia. Typically, the incidence obviously vary depending on the airway device. For in- Pof POST is highest in patients who are tracheally stance, endotracheal intubation can result in injury to any intubated; however, POST also occurs when a laryngeal mask portion of the pharynx as well as injury to the larynx and airway (LMA) is used.1 Even patients who are managed with trachea. Placement of an LMA can reasonably be expected a facemask are not immune.1 Most of the measures that have to cause injury to pharyngeal mucosa in the supraglottic been recommended for reducing this complication have been regions only, whereas the use of a facemask with an oral directed at limiting the physical trauma that might result from airway should result in injury to only the oropharynx, airway instrumentation and manipulation. Surprisingly few assuming that no other injuries occurred because of suc- investigations have evaluated pharmacologic interventions tioning or other airway maneuvers. It is therefore some- as a means of reducing POST. Furthermore, no single drug what surprising to note that the reported incidence of POST has achieved widespread acceptance in the clinical commu- after LMA insertion is, at least in some studies, remarkably nity. In this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, 4 articles similar to that seen with endotracheal intubation.6,7 Al- describe simple prophylactic measures that seem to signifi- though this might lead one to infer that the mechanism and 2–5 cantly reduce the incidence of POST. Two of these location of injury must also be similar, a number of facts articles evaluate the effectiveness of topical benzydamine seem to contradict this assumption. For instance, reducing hydrochloride applied to the cuff of the endotracheal tube, the size of endotracheal tubes results in a significant 2,3 directly to the pharyngeal mucosa, or both. A third article decrease in the incidence of POST.8 The design of tube cuffs 4 evaluates the efficacy of inhaled fluticasone propionate. has also been an area of intense research. The size, The fourth article evaluates Strepsils , a nonprescription pressure/volume characteristics, and shape of cuff have all lozenge that contains 2 active ingredients, amylmetacresol been implicated in tracheal mucosal injury and resultant 5 and 2,4-dichlorobenzyl alcohol. POST.9–12 Conversely, it has been suggested that cuff When considered in aggregate, these 4 articles raise a inflation pressure has less of a role in POST when an LMA number of interesting questions. The expression “sore is used.6 Both airway devices are clearly capable of induc- throat” is obviously common to the vernacular of many ing mucosal irritation and both can cause POST in patients different cultures, yet it provides at best a parsimonious at rates that are not strikingly different. Yet, anatomically, description of the actual phenomena. Consequently, the the site or sites of injury cannot be the same. expression “postoperative sore throat” likely represents a There are several interesting observations that arise broad constellation of signs and symptoms. For instance, in when one examines the data presented in the 4 articles its simplest form, sore throat is a lay description of phar- published in this issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia. The data yngitis, which in itself can have a variety of causes. 4 from Tazeh-kand et al. demonstrate that inhalation of However, sore throat may also include a variety of symp- fluticasone propionate before the induction of anesthesia toms including laryngitis, tracheitis, hoarseness, cough, or significantly reduces the incidence of POST at 1 hour and dysphagia. Postoperatively, it seems most plausible that the 24 hours after surgery compared with a placebo control. symptoms are the result of mucosal injury with resulting This is not necessarily an unexpected result. Topical13,14 inflammation caused by the process of airway instrumen- and systemic steroids15 have been demonstrated to reduce tation (i.e., laryngoscopy and suctioning) or the irritating the incidence of POST presumably because of their sys- effects of a foreign object (i.e., endotracheal tube, LMA, or temic antiinflammatory effects. More puzzling are the data presented by Ebneshahidi and Mohseni.5 Patients who From the Department of Anesthesiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. received a Strepsils lozenge before the induction of anes- Accepted for publication June 14, 2010. thesia had a significantly lower incidence of POST and Disclosure: The author reports no conflicts of interest. hoarseness both in the postanesthesia care unit and at 24 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Phillip E. Scuderi, MD, hours after surgery than did the placebo control group that Department of Anesthesiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, received a flavored lozenge without the active ingredient. Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1009. Address e-mail to [email protected]. Unless one postulates a systemic effect from the active Copyright © 2010 International Anesthesia Research Society ingredients in the Strepsils lozenge (i.e., amylmetacresol DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0b013e3181ee85c7 and 2,4-dichlorobenzyl alcohol), the effect site must be the October 2010 • Volume 111 • Number 4 www.anesthesia-analgesia.org 831 EDITORIAL pharyngeal mucosa. Whereas it is plausible to postulate a eliminated. The 4 studies presented here may provide the reduction on pharyngeal irritation due to the lozenge, it is impetus for a more careful evaluation of POST resulting in harder to postulate a mechanism for the reduction in more precisely targeted therapies. “hoarseness” that was reported in this study. It is also difficult to understand how a preoperative lozenge could AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS reduce a reaction to injury to the larynx and trachea and the PES designed and conducted the study, analyzed the data, and resultant laryngotracheitis that must have a role in POST wrote the manuscript. This author approved the final manuscript. that occurs after intubation. 2,3 Conversely, 2 of the articles describe a reduction in REFERENCES POST with the application of benzydamine hydrochloride 1. Higgins PP, Chung F, Mezei G. Postoperative sore throat after to the endotracheal tube cuff alone compared with a ambulatory surgery. Br J Anaesth 2002;88:582–4 placebo control (normal saline and distilled water, respec- 2. Hung NK, Wu CT, Chan SM, Lu CH, Hang YS, Yeh CC, Lee MS, tively). It seems unlikely that the small dose of benzydam- Cherng CH. The effect on postoperative sore throat of spraying the endotracheal tube cuff with benzydamine hydrochloride, 10% ine hydrochloride (1.5 and 0.75 mg, respectively) used lidocaine, and 2% lidocaine. Anesth Analg 2010;111:882–6 would have resulted in a systemic effect. Therefore, the 3. Huang YS, Hung NK, Lee MS, Kuo CP, Yu JC, Huang GS, reduction in POST that was observed in both of these Cherng CH, Wong CS, Chu CH, Wu CT. The effectiveness of studies must be assumed to have resulted from a localized benzydamine hydrochloride spray on the endotracheal tube decrease in mucosal injury and/or inflammatory response. cuff or oral mucosa for postoperative sore throat. Anesthesia Analg 2010;111:887–91 The incidence of and reduction in POST is strikingly similar 4. Tazeh-kand NF, Eslami B, Mohammadian K. Inhaled flutica- when Strepsils lozenges were used when compared with the sone propionate reduces postoperative sore throat, cough and application of benzydamine hydrochloride to the endotra- hoarseness. Anesth Analg 2010;111:895–8 cheal tube cuff. There are unavoidable questions that must be 5. Ebneshahidi A, Mohseni M. Strepsils tablets reduce sore throat and hoarseness after tracheal intubation. Anesth Analg 2010;111:892–4 asked: How can a lozenge that is administered orally result in 6. Wakeling HG, Butler PJ, Baxter PJ. The laryngeal mask airway: a similar reduction in POST when compared with the topical a comparison between two insertion techniques. Anesth Analg application of benzydamine hydrochloride to the endotra- 1997;85:687–90 cheal tube cuff? In addition, How can either an oral lozenge or 7. Joshi GP, Inagaki Y, White PF, Taylor-Kennedy L, Wat LI, topical antiinflammatory agent applied to an endotracheal Gevirtz C, McCraney JM, McCulloch DA. Use of the laryngeal mask airway as an alternative to the tracheal tube during tube cuff yield reductions in POST that compare favorably ambulatory anesthesia. Anesth Analg 1997;85:573–7 with a more widespread application of topical steroids to both 8. Stout DM, Bishop MJ, Dwersteg JF, Cullen BF. Correlation of the pharyngeal and laryngotracheal mucosa? endotracheal tube size with sore throat and hoarseness follow- POST is unquestionably a common adverse event after ing general anesthesia. Anesthesiology 1987;67:419–21 9. Loeser EA, Kaminsky A, Diaz A, Stanley TH, Pace NL. The general anesthesia. A number of physical factors have been influence of endotracheal tube cuff design and cuff lubrication implicated as noted above. Most notable would seem to be on postoperative sore throat. Anesthesiology 1983;58:376–9 endotracheal tube and cuff design and the approach to airway 10. Loeser EA, Bennett GM, Orr DL, Stanley TH. Reduction of management (i.e., endotracheal tube, LMA, or mask anesthe- postoperative sore throat with new endotracheal tube cuffs. sia). In addition, female gender, younger patients, gynecologic Anesthesiology 1980;52:257–9 11. Loeser EA, Hodges M, Gliedman J, Stanley TH, Johansen RK, surgery, and the use of succinylcholine also seem to increase Yonetani D. Tracheal pathology following short-term intuba- 16 the incidence. Of particular note, the use of topical lidocaine tion with low- and high-pressure endotracheal tube cuffs. appears to confer no benefit and may in fact make POST Anesth Analg 1978;57:577–9 worse,17,18 a fact that seems to have been confirmed by Hung 12.