<div>A comparison between conventional throat packs and pharyngeal placement
of tampons in rhinology surgeries.</div><div>Abstract</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div>The data shows that tampons are equivalent to gauze in terms of PONV.</div><div>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.</div><div>Bullet points</div><ol><li>Posterior throat packs are often-used in rhinology surgery to help in
protecting the airway against aspiration and in the reduction of ponv</li><li>A conventional throat pack consists of gauze, but an alternative
practice involves the pharyngeal placement of tampons</li><li>Patient that were packed with pharyngeal tampons had a lower pain
scores than the conventional throat pack group</li><li>that there are no difference<i>s</i> in post-operative nausea and
vomiting in both groups.</li><li>pharyngeal tampons <i>are</i> a suitable alternative -if not
replacement - for conventional ribbon gauze</li></ol>