The Effects of Pharyngeal Packing on the Postoperative Gastric Fluid Volume in Patients Undergoing Functional Endoscopic Nasal Surgery

August 8, 2025 updated by: Khaled Abdelfattah Abdallah Sarhan, Kasr El Aini Hospital

The Effects of Pharyngeal Packing on the Postoperative Gastric Fluid Volume Measured by Ultrasound in Patients Undergoing Functional Endoscopic Nasal Surgery, a Randomized Controlled Double-blinded Non-inferiority Trial

In this study, the aim is to investigate the effects of Pharyngeal Packing on the perioperative gastric volume in patients undergoing FESS, by ultrasound assessment

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Following approval from the Ethics and Research Committee of the anesthesia department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, and obtaining written informed consent from all participating patients meeting the inclusion criteria; patients will be randomly assigned into two groups using a computer-generated random number list with a closed-sealed envelope.

  • Group (P): will include the patients who will receive pharyngeal packing
  • Group (C): will include the patients who will not receive pharyngeal packing The day before the operation, all patients should be instructed to follow institutional fasting guidelines (a minimum of 2 h for clear fluids, 6 h for a light meal, and 8 h for a meal that included fried or fatty food) On operation day,The patient will attend at the pre-anesthesia room 1 hour before the procedure. A 20 Gauge cannula will be inserted peripherally.

Prophylactic antiemetic (metoclopramide 0.15mg/ kg) will be given slowly intravenously as premedication.

Then a serial ultrasonographic qualitative and quantitative assessment of the gastric antrum of the patients will be done and recorded preoperatively by the anesthetist who will be blinded to the study groups.

A preoperative ultrasonographic examination of the gastric antrum (at the sagittal plane between the left lobe of the liver and pancreas at the level of the aorta) will be performed in the right lateral decubitus position

Ultrasound Assessments:

A standardized scanning technique will be used with a portable sonographic system equipped with a 5- to 2-MHz curved array transducer (GE HealthCare). Subjects will be first placed in the supine position and then in the right lateral decubitus (RLD) position, always in a 45°semirecumbent position. In both of these positions, fluid or semifluid content gravitates preferentially to the antrum, and air or gas is displaced proximally toward the body or fundus, thus facilitating antral sonography (8) During ultrasound imaging, the gastric antrum will be identified in the sagittal to right parasagittal plane using the left lobe of the liver, the pancreas, abdominal aorta, or inferior vena cava as anatomical landmarks. The ultrasonographic assessment will consist of a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the gastric antrum. The qualitative assessment is aimed at the nature of gastric content (empty, fluid, or solid content). Based exclusively on this qualitative assessment of the antrum, and once the presence of solid content will be ruled out, patients will be classified into 3 grades (12)

  • Grade 0 antrum: is defined as the absence of fluid content in both supine and RLD positions, suggesting a "completely empty" state.
  • Grade 1 antrum: If fluid content is observed only in the RLD position, but not in the supine position. It correlates with low-volume states compatible with baseline gastric secretions in fasted patients.
  • Grade 2 antrum: If fluid is observed in both supine and RLD. The quantitative assessment of the gastric volume will be performed by measuring the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the gastric antrum (antral CSA) between peristaltic contractions, using the free-tracing calibre of the ultrasound unit. This free-tracing method is equivalent to the 2-diameter method of area measurement, and it is simpler and highly reproducible. This validated method allows rapid point-of-care assessment at the bedside, which is relevant for clinical practice (13) Using GE ultrasonography

Then gastric volume will be calculated using the following equation:

Volume (ml) = 27 + 14.6 x Right lateral CSA (cm2

) - 1.28 x age (year) Where Right-lat CSA is the antral CSA measured in the right lateral decubitus. In the operative room, standard monitoring (electrocardiography, pulse oximetry, non-invasive blood pressure, and capnography after intubation) will be applied to the patient.

General Anesthesia (GA) will be induced by another anesthetist who will open the closed envelope and not be blinded to the study groups with intravenous propofol 2 mg/kg, fentanyl 2 mcg/kg, atracurium 0.5 mg/kg, and the trachea will be intubated after mask ventilation for 3 minutes.

Anesthesia will be maintained with IPPV, isoflurane (MAC 1-1.5) in oxygen/air and atracurium 0.1mg/kg as a neuromuscular blocker by the time every 20 minutes. Ventilation will be controlled to maintain an end-tidal CO2 at 30 -35 mmHg.

Following the orotracheal intubation, soft wet pharyngeal packs were placed with gentle maneuvers to avoid damage to the soft palate in patients in group (P). The end of the pharyngeal pack will be hidden inside the mouth of the patient. Patients in both groups were intravenously administered ranitidine (0.5 mg/kg) following the intubation, and ketorolac (30 mg) and pethidine (0.5 mg/kg) at the end of the operation for postoperative analgesia.

Gastric ultrasonographic evaluation will be done at the end of the operation by the same anesthetist who will be blinded to the study group as described before, and the pharyngeal packs of the patients in group(P) will be removed, the residual neuromuscular block will be antagonized with atropine 0.01 m/kg and neostigmine 0.05mg/kg and extubation and suction under vision will be done.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

116

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Cairo, Egypt, 11559
        • Cairo university hospitals, kasralainy

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants will be adult patients (above 18 years), with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I-II, scheduled for elective FESS under general anesthesia.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients at risk of aspiration (patients with lower esophageal disease such as Hiatus hernia, or GERD and DM).
  • Pregnancy.
  • Body mass index (BMI) greater than 35 kg/m2.
  • Refusal of the patient.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: non packing group (c)
will include the patients who will not receive pharyngeal packing
group c will not receive pharyngeal packing
Group (P): will include the patients who will receive pharyngeal packing
Active Comparator: packing group (P)
will include the patients who will receive pharyngeal packing
group c will not receive pharyngeal packing
Group (P): will include the patients who will receive pharyngeal packing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The primary outcome of the current study is Gastric residual volume at the end of the procedure.
Time Frame: 4 hours
The primary outcome of the current study is Gastric residual volume at the end of the procedure.
4 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quantitative assessment of the risk of aspiration
Time Frame: 6 hours
Quantitative assessment of the risk of aspiration will be done using three cut-off values for GFV; 1.5 mL/kg, 1.25 mL/kg, and 0.8 mL/kg.
6 hours
Post operative nausea and vomiting incidence at PACU
Time Frame: 6 hours
Post operative nausea and vomiting incidence will be assessed at 5-time points using PONV score
6 hours
Lung ultrasound Score
Time Frame: 6 hours
Lung ultrasound will be performed before induction of anesthesia and at the end of the operation and using the same curvilinear probe and will be assessed according to the lung ultrasound score
6 hours
Throat pain at Post anesthesia care unit
Time Frame: 6 hours
Throat pain will be assessed using VAS
6 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Khaled Sarhan, MD, Cairo university hospitals

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 26, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 7, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

August 7, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 26, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 26, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

May 4, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 11, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 8, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MD-420-2023

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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