Postoperative throat complaints after tracheal intubation.

We have investigated the incidence of throat complaints 6-24 h after tracheal intubation in 1325 patients. Variables such as anaesthetic drug, intubation time, number of intubation attempts, gastric tube, sex and age were recorded. The incidence of sore throat was considerably lower (14.4%) compared with other reports in the literature and was significantly greater in females (17.0% vs 9.0%) and after thyroid surgery. The incidence of sore throat was not increased after multiple intubation attempts or after administration of suxamethonium or a non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocker.