English

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Postoperative sore throat and nausea and vomiting are common complaints in patients undergoing surgery, under general endotracheal anesthesia. Some of the studies have shown potential advantages of dexamethasone in prevention of postoperative sore throat. We therefore undertook a study to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone 8 mg administration intravenously, in reducing the incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing caesarean section under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. METHODS: In a randomized, double blind and placebo controlled study, 60 patients receiving general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation undergoing caesarean section were randomly assigned to two groups. Group-I, patients received dexamethasone 8 mg IV and group-II received normal saline 2 ml IV. After surgery VAS score was used to assess sore throat and nausea, number of episodes of vomiting were recorded by a blinded observer. RESULTS: The overall incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat was less at all times in study group as compared to control group (p 0.05), but severity of vomiting was less in early postoperative period in dexamethasone group (p<0.001). There was significant reduction in incidence and severity of dexamethasone group in delayed postoperative period. CONCLUSION: Single dose dexamethasone reduces the incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat, nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing caesarean section under general endotracheal anesthesia.