Ice Popsicle for Thirst Relief of the Surgical Patient

Universidade Estadual de Londrina

Status: Completed

Conditions: Thirst

Treatments: Other: Ice popsicle; Other: Water at room temperature

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02149394

16707313.5.0000.5231

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of ice popsicle compared with water at room temperature in relieving thirst in the immediate postoperative period . The hypothesis of the study is that ice has 20% greater efficacy than water to relieve thirst in the immediate postoperative period.

Full description

There is evidence that ice is effective in relieving thirst in surgical patients, because, by stimulating the oral receptors sensitive to cold, ice decreases the need to ingest large volumes of liquids to satisfy thirst. This way, the risk of bronchoaspiration due to gastric fullness is avoided and discomfort with dry mouth is reduced. Preliminary evidence, therefore, indicates that the use of ice chips have greater efficacy than water at room temperature in relieving thirst. However, there is no scientific evidence from controlled studies with results that can be generalized with respect to a safe volume and adequate frequency of ice administered to reduce thirst in the immediate postoperative period.Considering that the gold standard for the study of a symptom is based on individuals' perceptions and their reports, this study is justified in order to assess the effectiveness of ice compared with water at room temperature in relieving thirst in the immediate postoperative period.

Enrollment: 208 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• aged between 18 and 65 years;
• undergoing more than eight-hour preoperative fasting;
• expressing thirst spontaneously or stimulated with intensity greater than or equal to three according to the numeric visual analogue scale;
• receiving opioids or anticholinergics during surgery;
• duration of anesthesia exceeding one hour;
• having been approved in the assessment by the Safety Protocol of Thirst Management;
• signing the informed consent during the preoperative period.

Exclusion criteria

• patients who had intake or swallowing restrictions.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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208 participants in 2 patient groups

Ice

Experimental group

Description:

The concealment of allocation was performed through the use of individual opaque envelopes numbered externally in sequence, containing information of the group randomly defined. This step was carried out by a researcher who did not take part in data collection.Thirst intensity was measured within the range from 1 to 10 according to the numeric visual analogue scale.The experimental group received an ice popsicle made of 10 mL mineral water.The ice popsicles were made according to the predetermined volumes and packed in the freezer of the anesthetic recovery room at the institution researched. The block of ice was supported by a stick, allowing the patients to control the intensity of cold conferred by the ice for their comfort.

Treatment:

Other: Ice popsicle

Water

Active Comparator group

Description:

The concealment of allocation was performed through the use of individual opaque envelopes numbered externally in sequence, containing information of the group randomly defined. This step was carried out by a researcher who did not take part in data collection.Thirst intensity was measured within the range from 1 to 10 according to the numeric visual analogue scale. The usual activities adopted by the nursing staff of the anesthetic recovery room were maintained for the control group that received 10 mL mineral water at room temperature in a syringe.

Treatment:

Other: Water at room temperature