Postoperative sore throat and intracuff pressure: comparison among endotracheal intubation, laryngeal mask airway and cuffed oropharyngeal airway

We studied which device is most useful to reduce postoperative sore-throat. We investigated the relationship between intracuff pressure and postoperative sore-throat in using endotracheal intubation (ET), the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) and the cuffed oropharyngeal airway (COPA) in adult patients. We classified sore-throat into categories; pain at rest, hoarseness and dysphasia. We evaluated pain at rest by the score (0: no pain, 1: mild discomfort, 2: mild pain, 3: severe pain). Pain at rest (scores 1, 2, 3) was complained by 10 patients in ET group, 3 in LMA group, 5 in COPA group on the day of operation, showing significantly lower incidence of pain at rest in LMA group than in ET group. Hoarseness was complained by 15 patients in ET group, 2 in LMA group and 4 in COPA group, showing significantly lower incidence of hoarseness in LMA and COPA groups than in ET group. Dysphasia was complained by 3 in ET group, 1 in LMA group and 2 in COPA group, showing no significant difference. These results suggest that LMA is most appropriate to reduce postoperative sore-throat.