Post tonsillectomy pain: Role of single intraoperative dose of dexamethasone

Objective: to determine the effects of a single intra-operative intravenous dose (0.5mg/kg) of dexamethasone on post tonsillectomy/or adenotonsillectomy pain. materials and methods: this prospective,hospital-based analytical (comparative) study was conducted at departments of ent,district headquarter teaching hospital (dhq),and mufti mehmood memorial (mmm) teaching hospital,dera ismail khan (dik) from january 2011 to december 2011. subjects of either sex,aging 6-30 years with history of recurrent episodes of acute tonsillitis were included. those having nasal pathology,history of acute tonsillitis within six weeks,bleeding diathesis,or contraindication to steroids,were excluded. an alternate sequential entry was made to group 1 (treatment group),receiving a single dose of intraoperative intravenous dexamethasone and group 2 (control group) with no treatment. the intensity of post operative pain was assessed as mild (0-4),moderate (5-7) and severe (8-10) based on visual analogue scale (vas) and compared between the groups at 2,4 and 8 hours. results: out of 100 subjects,66 were male and 34 female,50 in each group. the intensity of pain was statistically significantly lower in group 1 than in group 2 at 2,4,and 8 hours (p=value 0.004,0.000,0.000 respectively) as determined by two-sample independent t test. conclusion: single dose of intravenous intra-operative dexamethasone (0.5mg/kg) is recommended for reduction of post tonsillectomy/ or adenotonsillectomy pain.