Licorice Prevents Sore Throats after Operations

(Borganic.org) Imagine a tube is stuck down your throat and left there for up to a couple of hours. It would be no surprise that you'd end up with a raw feeling throat. That's just what happens to countless people who undergo surgery under general anesthesia. The endotracheal tube, also referred to as a breathing tube, that's used to keep airways open during an operation can result in an excruciatingly sore throat post-surgery -- a condition known as postoperative sore throat (POST).

When throat lozenges aren't enough to alleviate symptoms, some doctors prescribe heavy duty, side effect loaded pain relievers. Incredibly, one of the drugs sometimes used is ketamine, the same powerful, mind-altering medication known as the "date rape" drug. But a new study just published in Anesthesia and Analgesia, the official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), shows there's a safer, natural alternative -- gargling with a licorice solution.

The study, conducted by Dr. Anil Agarwal and colleagues at the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, India, included 40 patients who were undergoing spinal surgery. Five minutes before they were given general anesthesia with a breathing tube, the patients simply gargled with either a diluted licorice solution or plain water.

After their operations, the patients who received the licorice gargle had a lower rate of postoperative sore throat, including pain on swallowing. Two hours after surgery, 75 percent of the study participants who gargled with only water suffered from POST while only about a fourth of the research subjects who used the licorice gargle had a sore throat at all. The ones in the licorice group who did have sore throats had less severe symptoms than the patients who only gargled with water, too.

There was even more good news for those who used the licorice gargle: they were far less likely to develop a postoperative cough than the surgery patients who only gargled with water. This is important because coughing after surgery can lead to potentially serious complications.

Read full article here. Licorice Prevents Sore Throats after Operations

Get your news at Borganic.org