Green Tea Gargling Effect on Cough & Hoarseness After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Endotracheal intubation is a method necessary for controlling and maintaining airway during general anesthesia. Cough and hoarseness are common complications after endotracheal intubation. Inflammation has an important role in postoperative cough and hoarseness outbreak. Also it has been stated that green tea has anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, the current study has been conducted to investigate green tea gargling solution effect on cough and hoarseness after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

In this single-blind, randomized, & controlled clinical trial, we enrolled 121 patients undergoing CABG admitted to the ICU. The intervention group participants were asked to gargle 30 cc of green tea solution. The control group patients gargled 30 cc of distilled water. An hour after extubation, the intervention group patients were asked to gargle 30 cc of green tea and the control group patients were required to gargle 30 cc of distilled water every 6 hour up to 24 hour (each patient for 4 times). Moreover, the cough and hoarseness questionnaire was also filled in 6, 12, and 24 hours after endotracheal extubation.

The results showed no significant differences among the patients in both groups regarding age, gender, body mass index, smoking history, and anesthesia duration. There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of cough 12 hours after removing the endotracheal tube. At other times, there was no significant difference between the two groups considering cough and hoarseness.

The present study results showed that green tea gargling does not decrease hoarseness. Though, cough occurrence was less in the intervention group than the other group.