ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03678168Updated Oct 22, 2019

A Comparison Between Conventional Throat Packs and Pharyngeal Placement of Tampons in Rhinology Surgeries

An interventional study of Throat Pack and Pharyngeal Tampons in Pain, Postoperative Pain and Bleeding, sponsored by King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain. Completed at 1 site in Bahrain. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 60 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-10-22.

Primary conditionPain, PostoperativeRegistry: PainReclassifiedWhy we changed it
Registry
Pain — the first condition term the registry derived for this study.
ClinicalTrials.gg
Pain, Postoperative
Why
  1. The study's listed conditions name Pain, Postoperative, a narrower term within Pain.
Confidence
High: the new condition is named in the study's own listed conditions. Of 351 hand-checked studies reclassified this way, 68% were exactly right and 84% in the right disease family; the registry's first term was right for 5% (measured 2026-10-21). How we classify →
Wrong?
Tell us the study's main condition →

Sponsored by King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
86
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 60 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Post-operative, throat pain, nausea and vomiting is a common occurrence in rhinology surgeries due to the use of throat packs during the procedure. In order to optimize quality of care and patient satisfaction, the aim of this study to evaluate the incidence of post-operative, throat pain, nausea and vomiting in patients that have been packed with either conventional gauze throat packs or pharyngeal tampons.

Read the detailed description

The nose and para nasal sinuses are anatomically known to be highly vascular and a substantial amount of bleeding is expected from rhinology surgeries, ingested blood is known to be a power full emetic, and the risk aspiration of blood is present due to the fact that an endotracheal tube is not 100% effective in protecting the airway. Post-operative nausea and vomiting is a frequent problem that is encountered in surgical patients with a 4th to 6th fold increase in nasal and endoscopic sinus operations.

Posterior throat pack is an often-used in rhinology surgery, it is said to help in protecting the air way against aspiration and also helps in the reduction of post-operative nausea and vomiting, however many studies concluded that posterior throat pack is associated with higher amount of post-operative pain, nausea,, vomiting and in some rare cases even forgotten in the patient leading to mortality. However, despite poor evidence the placement of posterior throat packs is commonly practiced by surgeons and anesthetists because the possible risk of aspiration is worrisome to the latter and the former.

A conventional throat pack consists of gauze, but an alternative practice involves the pharyngeal placement of tampons. In Marais and Prescott posterior pharyngeal placement of tampons is associated with a decrease amount of post-operative throat pain, when compared to conventional gauze throat packs, however they did not compare the incidence of post-operative nausea and vomiting in both groups.

02

Conditions studied

  • Pain
  • Postoperative Pain
  • Bleeding
  • Nose Bleed

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03

In context

Pain, Postoperative Reclassified

5,640 studies on the registry are indexed under Pain, Postoperative; 1,230 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 86 is above the median of 75 across 4,821 interventional studies indexed under Pain, Postoperative.

Browse Pain, Postoperative studies →

Lead sponsor

King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain is the lead sponsor of 9 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Compared within Pain, Postoperative, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Pain. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 60 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Adults patients ( above the age of 18 years)
  • Admitted under Dr. Hiba Al-Reefy
  • Underwent a rhinology procedure that required the use of a throat pack

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pediatric patients
  • Pt who underwent a procedure without the use of throat packs
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
86 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Control

    Standard care (Throat pack) which will be used as a control.

    Other: Throat Pack

  • Experimental
    Intervention

    Pharyngeal tampons which will be used as a comparator against throat pack.

    Other: Pharyngeal Tampons

Interventions

  • OtherThroat Pack

    Post rhinology surgery throat packs will be used as a control to compare against the intervention (Pharyngeal tampons)

    Also known as: Control

  • OtherPharyngeal Tampons

    Post rhinology surgery Pharyngeal Tampons will be used as an intervention to compare against the throat pack (control)

    Also known as: Intervention

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Comparison of postoperative throat pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS)

    Evaluation of postoperative pain between pharyngeal tampons and controls using the Visual Analogue scale. A value of 0 is the lowest value and indicates the patient is pain free. And a score of 10 is the maximum value which indicates extreme pain on the scale.

    Time frame: 2 years

  2. postoperative throat bleed

    Evaluation of postoperative bleeding in patients using pharyngeal tampons vs control

    Time frame: 2 years

Secondary outcomes

  1. Postoperative recovery

    Assess the postoperative symptom recovery

    Time frame: 2 years

07

Study locations

1 site
  • King Hamad University Hospital
    Muharraq, Muharraq, Bahrain 244343, Bahrain
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References and documents

Publications

  • Piltcher O, Lavinsky M, Lavinsky J, de Oliveira Basso PR. Effectiveness of hypopharyngeal packing during nasal and sinus surgery in the prevention of PONV. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2007 Oct;137(4):552-4. doi: 10.1016/j.otohns.2007.04.004. PubMed 17903569 ↗
  • Fennessy BG, Mannion S, Kinsella JB, O'Sullivan P. The benefits of hypopharyngeal packing in nasal surgery: a pilot study. Ir J Med Sci. 2011 Mar;180(1):181-3. doi: 10.1007/s11845-010-0601-4. Epub 2010 Nov 26. PubMed 21110138 ↗
  • Seraj MA, Ankutse MM, Khan FM, Siddiqui N, Ziko AO. Tracheal soiling with blood during intranasal surgery--comparison of two endotracheal tubes. Middle East J Anaesthesiol. 1991 Feb;11(1):79-89. PubMed 2067508 ↗
  • Jaiswal V, Bedford GC. Review of the use of throat packs in nasal surgery. J Laryngol Otol. 2009 Jul;123(7):701-4. doi: 10.1017/S0022215109004356. Epub 2009 Feb 4. PubMed 19192316 ↗
  • Tay JY, Tan WK, Chen FG, Koh KF, Ho V. Postoperative sore throat after routine oral surgery: influence of the presence of a pharyngeal pack. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2002 Feb;40(1):60-3. doi: 10.1054/bjom.2001.0753. PubMed 11883973 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 22, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03678168
Lead sponsor
King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 19, 2018
Start date
Sep 5, 2018
Primary completion
Aug 15, 2019
Completion
Sep 15, 2019
Last update
Oct 22, 2019

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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