A comparison between conventional throat packs and pharyngeal placement
of tampons in rhinology surgeries.
Abstract
Abstract Objective: the aim is to evaluate the incidence of
postoperative throat pain, nausea and vomiting in patients that have
been packed with either conventional gauze or pharyngeal tampons.
Methods We included adult patients who were booked for a rhinology
surgery that needed throat packs. They were allocated into two groups,
pharyngeal tampons, and conventional ribbon gauze. They were then
assessed using visual analog scales and PONV impact scale respectively
in the 1st, 4th, and 24th –hour. Results VAS results show that tampons
are better than gauze, with 25 out of 43 patients using tampons having
low VAS scores after 24 hours whereas 23 out of 46 patients using gauze
had low VAS scores after 24 hours. The data shows that tampons are
equivalent to gauze in terms of PONV. Conclusion The study shows that
the use of pharyngeal tampons is associated with decreased pain scores,
however, it also shows that there no difference in postoperative nausea
and vomiting.