Effectiveness of a preoperative single dose intravenous dexamethasone in reducing the prevalence of postoperative sore throat after endotracheal intubation.

To evaluate the effectiveness of two-different doses of prophylactic dexamethasone intravenous administration in reducing the prevalence of postoperative sore throat following general endotracheal anesthesia.All patients (105 cases) of different procedures of elective surgery scheduled to have general anesthesia performed with endotracheal intubations were included. The subjects randomized into three pre-operative intravenous substance/drug administrations, group I (35 cases) with normal saline 2 ml, group II (35 cases) with dexamethasone 4 mg, and group III (35 cases) with dexamethasone 8 mg, respectively. The prevalence of sore throat and its severity was assessed, using visual analogue scale (VAS), scores of O to 10; 0 = no pain, and 10 = most severe pain.Among three groups, the duration of surgery, and intubation-induced trauma had no statistical significance. The prevalence of sore throat at 1-hour/24-hour postoperative was 48.6/48.6%, 54.3/28.6%, and 54.3/42.9% in group I, II, and III respectively, and without statistical significance.The intravenous dexamethasone had no significant effectiveness against postoperatively sore throat after endotracheal intubation.