Material and methods
In this prospective clinical trial, all surgeries were done by a single
surgeon as to decrease variability in the management of each patient.
Patients were divided into two groups, one that received the
conventional gauze throat packs and those that received pharyngeal
tampons (figure 1.1 and figure 1.2) . The allocation of patients
was done on the day of the surgery dependant on the first patient that
was admitted in the morning , the allocation of the first patient was
decided by coin toss , if the first patient was kept in the pharyngeal
tampon group the subsequent patient was kept in the conventional guaze
throat pack group and it alternated till the end of the list. This
allowed for randomisation and equal distribution among the 2 groups.
Our study population included all adult patients that underwent
rhinology procedures that required the use of a throat pack between
January of 2018 to January of 2019., Minors below the age of 18 and
rhinology procedures that required no throat pack were excluded from the
study. The Institutional review board provided ethical approval for
approved the study, and signed informed consent was obtained from all
patients.
Post-operative pain was assessed using the visual analogue
scale10 ,(figure 1.3) patients were asked on a scale
of 1 to 10 on the amount of pain they were experiencing in various post
op periods, where 1 was the lowest amount of pain and 10 was the highest
amount of pain. Patients were seen at 1 hour and on the
4th hour post operatively and were called via phone 24
hours later to assess the amount of pain they were experiencing. All
data collected was recorded in an excel sheet.
Post-operative nausea was assessed using the PONV impact
scale11 (figure 1.4). It includes 2 questions , one of
which is whether the patient had experienced any dry retching or
vomiting, and the second one being if they experienced nausea. A final
score (PONV Impact scale) was calculated using the responses to the
previous two questions. A PONV Impact Score of ≥5 defines clinically
important PONV. Patients were seen at 1 hour and on the
4th hour post operatively and were called via phone 24
hours later, to assess the amount of nausea and vomiting they were
experiencing. All data collected was recorded in an excel sheet.
T Test and levenes test was done on the date and All data was analyzed
using SPSS Statistics software version 25.