A prospective study on the incidence of sore throat after use of laryngeal mask airway during general anesthesia.

Background: Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is a useful alternative to intubation of the trachea to maintain the airways. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of sore throat after LMA during general anesthesia in short-duration elective surgery.

Method: In this prospective study, 76 patients undergoing surgery with general anesthesia in (XXX) during 2018 and 2019 were selected and their demographic information were entered into the data collection form. Laryngeal mask airway was used in the subjects for airway maintenance during the surgery. The incidence of sore throat at postoperative 0, 6, 12 h was measured using Visual Analogues Scale (VAS) as primary outcome and it was then compared with demographic parameters as secondary outcomes.

Result: The mean age of the patient was 45.48 ± 14.89 years and 46 (60.5 %) of the patients were women. The mean BMI was 24.02 ± 3.05 kg/m. The average duration of surgery was 56.9 ± 15.9 min. The incidence of sore throat immediately after the surgery and at 6 and 12 postoperative hours was 26.3 %, 23.7 %, and 19.7 %, respectively. The incidence of sore throat after the use of LMA was not significantly correlated with age, sex, and BMI (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: The findings of our study showed that pain due to sore throat following laryngeal mask airway was reported to be mild in our study. The postoperative sore throat may not associated with demographic variables.