Perioperative Low Dose Dexamethasone For The Prevention Of Sore Throat After Thyroidectomy

Objective Some studies have shown that perioperative intravenous low dose dexamethasone not only can reduce the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, but can reduce the severity of incision pain. What’s more, it can reduce the incidence of arrhythmia, relieve edema, improve appetite and reduce in-hospital time.However, less studies on sore throat after thyroidectomy. The purpose of this study is to observe the influence of perioperative low-dose dexamethasone on sore throat after thyroidectomy through the pain rating scale.Methods This is a prospective, double-blinded, randomized study. Patients underwent thyroid surgeries were randomly divided into two groups, dexamethasone group and saline group. Patients received either dexamethasone 0.1mg/kg of 5mg/ml(i.v.)or equivalent saline(i.v.) after induction of general anesthesia. Data collected included pain VAS scores were evaluated for throat pain(at rest and in swallow) and incision pain. The incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting were also observed with VRS socres. Otherwise,collected glucose levels before and after operation in patients’ blood. All patients were followed up for one week for any wound infection.Results The VAS scores for throat pain(at rest and swallow) and incision pain were remarkably lower than those in the group S, with much less patients required rescue pain medicine(18.4% in group D vs 58.5% in group S, p<0.001). The incidences of postoperative nausea and vomiting were much less than those in the saline group( 0.99% in group D vs 6.24% in group S, p=0.041). The glucose levels in the group D were higher than those in the group S on postoperative day 1(6.09±1.68 in group D vs 5.38±1.16 in group S, p<0.001), and turn to the baseline on postoperative day 2.There is no difference on the rate of infection in the two groups(P=0.848).Conclusions Perioperative low-dose dexamethasone can reduce the incidence and the severity of nausea and vomiting after thyroidectomy. Reduced postoperative sore throat and incision pain after thyroidectomy. It can increase the blood glucose level on postoperative day 1, but returned to baseline on postoperative day 2.No high blood glucose adverse reaction happened in this study.