Positive Health Online

Abstract

PARK and colleagues, Wooridul Spine Hospital, Department of Anaesthesiology, Seoul, Korea, have found that post-operative sore throats can be prevented by the application of a capsicum plaster at the Korean hand acupuncture point.

Background

General anaesthesia that requires the patient to be intubated often leads to a sore throat post operation. This study aimed at testing whether this could be prevented by the application of capsicum, an efficient painkiller, to an acupoint.

Methodology

In this randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled study, 150 patients scheduled to undergo abdominal hysterectomy were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group had capsicum plaster applied at the K-A20 of both hands, and the control group had the plaster taped at non-acupoints. The plaster was applied prior to induction of anaesthesia and removed 8 hours postoperatively.

Results

The sore throat scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than those of the control group at 24 hours after surgery (p = 0.00027). The prevalence of moderate to severe sore throat at 24 hours was lower for the experimental group (0%) than for controls (19%, p = 0.032). There were no differences in the recovery room of the sore throat scores for both groups.

Conclusion

The authors found that the capsicum plaster applied at the K-A20 was an alternative method for reducing postoperative sore throat.

References

Park HS, Kim KS, Min HK, Kim DW. Prevention of postoperative sore throat using capsicum plaster applied at the Korean hand acupuncture point. Anaesthesia 59(7): 647-651, Jul 2004.