Method of Anesthesia and Throat Pain after Elective Rhinoplasty

Throat pain is a common postoperative complaint. There are no published studies reporting incidence of throat pain after conscious sedation (CS). In this study, we aimed to determine its incidence after rhinoplasty by general anesthesia (GA) or CS. We evaluated throat pain in recovery, four, twelve and 24 hours after surgery using Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) in 202 consecutive females, aged>18 underwent elective rhinoplasty anesthetized by GA or CS in a prognostic cohort study. Age, duration of anesthesia and nausea/vomiting after surgery were also recorded. Candidates with negative histories of throat pain prior to surgery, smoking, head and neck trauma or surgery, known cases of cardiac, respiratory or airway, gastrointestinal or endocrine disorders and any history of sensitivity to sedative or anesthetic agents were included. Subjects with mallampathy grade 3 or 4 and laryngospasm during anesthesia were excluded. Logistic regression models were developed to predict throat pain. The incidence of throat pain after CS and GA in recovery, four, twelve and 24 hours after rhinoplasty were 40.6% vs. 42.6% (p=0.78), 28.7% vs. 38.6% (p=0.14), 26.7% vs. 14.9% (p=0.037), 11.9% vs. 19.8% (p=0.12) respectively. The odds for throat pain were statistically significant for nausea/vomiting in recovery (OR=11, 95%CI: 5.1-22.3; P<0.0001) and for type of anesthesia at 12h after rhinoplasty (OR=2.1, 95 CI: 1.04-4.23; P=0.04). Incidence of throat pain is relatively more at 12 hours after rhinoplasty in CS than GA. Although it has no difference in other times.