Endotracheal Tube Suctioning Versus No Suctioning During Emergence From General Anesthesia

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Hypoxia, Airway Obstruction, Postoperative, Sore Throat, Cough, Postoperative

In brief

The goal of this study is to determine whether omitting tracheal suctioning immediately prior to extubation is non-inferior to routine tracheal suctioning with respect to early postoperative oxygenation among adult surgical patients (aged 18-90 years, American Society of Anesthesiologists \[ASA\] physical status I-III) undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. The study addresses the following questions: * Primary outcome (non-inferiority): * Is the risk of postoperative desaturation (oxygen saturation \[SpO₂\] \<92% within 60 minutes after extubation) in the no-suction group not worse than in the routine-suction group by more than 10 percentage points? * Secondary outcomes (superiority): * Does omitting tracheal suctioning reduce postoperative cough severity and sore throat? * Does omitting tracheal suctioning avoid increasing extubation-related adverse events? Participants will be randomly assigned (1:1) to one of two groups: * Routine suctioning (SUC): Endotracheal suctioning plus oropharyngeal suctioning immediately before extubation * No suctioning (NON-SUC): Oropharyngeal suctioning only, without endotracheal suctioning All participants will receive standard anesthetic care and postoperative monitoring in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) for 60 minutes. Follow-up for airway symptoms and patient satisfaction will be conducted at 24 hours after surgery.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07287293

Run by

Mahidol University

People needed

408

Starts

2026-01-05

Expected to finish

2027-03-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-01-12

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Adults aged 18-90 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-III.
• Scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia requiring endotracheal intubation.
• Planned tracheal extubation in the operating room at the end of surgery.

You may not qualify if…

• Inability to provide informed consent or the presence of a significant language barrier that prevents effective communication with the clinical team.
• Known diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), active pneumonia, or chronic pulmonary disease (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, restrictive lung disease).
• Body mass index (BMI) >35 kg/m².
• Pregnancy or increased aspiration risk (e.g., full stomach).
• Scheduled for maxillofacial, head and neck, or airway surgery.
• Anticipated surgical duration >3.5 hours.
• Anticipated difficult airway, defined as the presence of ≥2 predictors of difficult mask ventilation (DMV) based on Langeron et al., or a documented history of difficult intubation.

Where it is running

• Somdetphraphutthaloetla hospital — Samut Sakhon, Thailand (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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