Moffett's Solution Causes Significantly Greater Postoperative Throat Pain Compared to Cophenylcaine in Sinonasal Surgery

AIM: Preoperative decongestion with Moffett's solution is routine practice in sinonasal procedures providing an ideal operative field. Anecdotally, it is related to postoperative throat pain, yet a quantitative relationship has not been established. We compare the incidence and severity of postoperative throat pain after application of Moffett's solution against Cophenylcaine decongestion. METHODOLOGY: A total of thirty patients from two consultants were recruited. The intervention arm (twenty) was decongested with Moffett's solution and the control arm (ten) with Cophenylcaine. The primary outcome was self-reported postoperative throat pain as measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) at 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, and next morning. RESULTS: There was a significantly higher VAS for throat pain in patients decongested with Moffett's solution in the early postoperative period (2 hours p=0.03, 4 hours p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Moffett's solution is associated with a greater severity of transient postoperative throat pain compared to topical Cophenylcaine. We recommend further studies to identify means to minimise this side effect. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: This paper has been registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry under the registration number: ACTRN12619000772145.