NCT03095183

Do Traditional or Flavored Tongue Depressors Make for Easier Posterior Oropharynx Exams in Pediatric Patients

Do Traditional or Flavored Tongue Depressors Make for Easier Posterior

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 96 (actual)
• Sponsor: Brooke Army Medical Center · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Evaluation of the oropharynx is a standard component of a general medical exam for all pediatric patients, but is an essential exam in the undifferentiated ill child. Pediatric patients are unable to verbalize where they hurt, and a comprehensive evaluation is needed to identify the source of fever and illness. Frequently, illnesses will present atypically as well, and a patient complaining of abdominal pain may ultimately be diagnosed with streptococcus pharyngitis. If the examiner does not evaluate the posterior oropharynx, the throat as a cause of abdominal pain is easily overlooked. Additionally, young children are prone to infections with pox viruses causing herpangina, hand foot and mouth disease, oral thrush. Despite the importance of the posterior oropharynx exam, it can be a source of stress and anxiety for both the clinician and pediatric patient when a tongue depressor is used to evaluate the posterior oropharynx. However, there are no studies to date that have looked at decreasing the difficulty or at decreasing the perceived discomfort associated with the poster oropharynx exam in the pediatric patient when a tongue depressor is utilized. Despite this paucity of research, there are multiple different flavored and candied tongue depressors available for this purpose which may or may not aid in obtaining posterior oropharynx exam and decrease the discomfort experienced by the patients.

Detailed description

The study design is a prospective, placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trial using a convenience sample of 96 pediatric patients presenting for care in the emergency department who require an oropharyngeal examination as part of their evaluation. Examinations will be performed utilizing either traditional (unflavored) or flavored tongue depressors in a random fashion. . Physician/provider investigators will complete a brief survey after each exam as to the ease of the exam and the perceived emotional discomfort the exam experienced by the subject, both recorded on a visual analog scale. The age and sex of the subject, and the education level of the investigator will also be recorded. A single question survey will also be provided to the parent/caregiver as to their perception of the discomfort of their child during the posterior oropharynx exam using a visual analog scale. Additionally, a single question survey will be posed to the subject asking for their discomfort level during the exam using the Oucher pediatric pain scale.

Conditions

• Oropharynx

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Grape flavored Puritan Junior tongue depressor
DEVICE	Traditional unflavored Puritan Regular Tongue Depressor

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-08-24
• Primary completion: 2017-02-21
• Completion: 2017-02-21
• First posted: 2017-03-29
• Last updated: 2017-03-29

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study