Dexamethasone Versus Local Infiltration Technique for Tonsillectomy in Children

Summary

Tonsillectomy is one of the most frequent surgical operations performed in children \[1-4\]. It is usually associated with postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) with an incidence ranging from 23% to 73% \[2\]. Dexamethasone has been shown to be effective in reducing PONV after tonsillectomy using standardized anesthetic technique \[2, 5-7\]. Previous studies utilizing a different technique, the pre-incision infiltration of local anesthesia, had shown to decrease post-tonsillectomy pain, reduce analgesic consumption and provide a rapid return to normal activity \[8, 9\]. Given the effectiveness of dexamethasone and the pre-incision infiltration anesthetic technique, it would be beneficial to compare the effect of each on PONV.

Timeline

Start

2015-01

Primary completion

2015-08

Completion

2015-08

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper After 24 h, the incidence of PONV was significantly higher in group I compared to group II (26.6% vs. 9.2% respectively, p-value = 0.019). PMID 28012528 ↗

Publications

• Naja Z, Kanawati S, Al Khatib R, Ziade F, Naja ZZ, Naja AS, Rajab M. The effect of IV dexamethasone versus local anesthetic infiltration technique in postoperative nausea and vomiting after tonsillectomy in children: A randomized double-blind clinical trial. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2017 Jan;92:21-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2016.10.030. Epub 2016 Oct 28.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.