The Effect of Saline Gargling on Dry Mouth and Sore Throat in Patients with Thyroidectomy

1. Background Thyroid cancer is the most common malignant tumor that occurs in the endocrine system. In 2017, it ranked 4th and accounted for 11.3% of the total cancer incidence rate in Korea, and it has been reported that the incidence rate of thyroid cancer among women is 78.5%, which is 3.3 times higher than that of 23.6% for men. The most basic treatment for thyroid cancer is surgery, and total thyroidectomy or lobectomy can be performed depending on the stage of cancer. Due to general anesthesia performed during thyroidectomy, patients experience various discomforts such as thirst, sore throat, pain, nausea, vomiting, helplessness, or drowsiness. Dry mouth and sore throat that occur after intubation for general anesthesia tend to be considered as minor complications compared to postoperative pain or vomiting, but they are discomforts that patients with thyroidectomy frequently complain of and some people experience severe pain. If glycopyrrolate, an anticholinergic agent, is used as a pre-anesthesia medication, it may dry the upper respiratory tract mucosa and cause damage during intubation. Also, it may cause dry mouth due to reduced salivation after surgery since the drug action time is long. In particular, many patients experience severe dry mouth while regaining consciousness due to prolonged oxygen supply and oral aspiration after surgery. Meanwhile, 68.4% of thyroidectomy patients complained of sore throat due to endotracheal intubation and sore throat is the second most common side effect during postoperative anesthesia recovery. Sore throat occurs due to local ischemia, swelling, and mucosal damage of the tracheal mucosa by the endotracheal tube and lasts from 1 to 2 days after surgery. In particular, the incidence of sore throat is much higher with female patients than male patients. This is because women have a smaller tracheal diameter and the softer mucous membrane wall. The reason why patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery complain more about sore throat than other general anesthesia patients is that the thyroid surgery position is adjacent to the endotracheal tube and its surrounding tissues are damaged during surgery. As mentioned above, if dry mouth or sore throat is induced after thyroid cancer surgery, it can cause physiological and pathological changes together with various discomforts. If dry mouth occurs after surgery, a patient will experience discomfort when speaking, chewing and swallowing, or pain in the oral mucosa. In addition, oral buffering The Effect of Saline Gargling on Dry Mouth and Sore Throat in Patients with Thyroidectomy Kim, Do Hui · Park, Jeong Sook Kyungpook National University Chillgok Hospital, Daegu; College of Nursing, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea