A Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial of two interventions to manage dry mouth in pre-operative elective surgical patients.

Dry mouth, associated with fasting, stress, anxiety and pharmacological agents has been identified to be the most common perioperative patient complaint. In the pre-operative setting, dry mouth and thirst can be difficult to separate. Patient reported outcome measures such as pain, anxiety and nausea have multiple therapeutic options. Dry mouth is an important, but often overlooked patient reported outcome measure, with few therapeutic options. Dry mouth, is amenable to therapies including saliva substitutes, saliva stimulants and intravenous sialogues in oncological patients following surgery or radiotherapy and in autoimmune conditions. To date, the efficacy of these treatments has not been tested in the perioperative setting. Following a recent pilot study, BIG DRY aims to reduce the feeling of dry mouth in perioperative patients by comparing two simple treats, mouth wash and water.