en Nursing Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> Sore throat is one of the most common complications of endotracheal intubation, which interferes with patient&#39;s normal breathing and oral feeding process. This may ultimately delay the patient&#39;s discharge from the hospital. The aim of this study was to determine effect of warm normal saline solution gargling on sore throat in open heart surgery patients after estuation.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> This clinical trial was performed in 2016 on 60 patients undergoing open heart surgery at the Amir Al-Momenin Hospital in Kordkoy, Northeast of Iran. The subjects were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to an intervention and a control group. Patients with sore throat were assessed using the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS 0&ndash;10) one hour after endotracheal tube removal and then every 6 hours for 24 hours. An overall score of zero, 1-3, 4-6, and 6-10 indicated no pain, mild pain, moderate pain, and severe pain, respectively. Data were analyzed with SPSS (version 18) using the Shapiro&ndash;Wilk test, independent t-test, Fisher&#39;s exact test, Chi-square test, and Friedman test. All analyses were carried out at significance of 0.05.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> At the beginning of the study, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, history of addiction, and sore throat severity (p> 0.05). Six hours after the intervention, pain intensity did not differ significantly between the two groups (p <0.05). However, pain intensity was significantly lower in the intervention group compared with the control group 12, 18, and 24 hours after the intervention (p<0.001).<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> The results indicate that warm normal saline solution gargling after removal of the endotracheal tube is a practical, simple, and cheap approach to relieve sore throat in patients undergoing open heart surgery.</div> Endotracheal intubation, Open heart surgery, Pharyngitis, Saline Solution, Gargling 21 24 http://nmj.goums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-555-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Gol Bahar Eri golbahar.iri@gmail.com 100319475328460011507 100319475328460011507 No Department of Intensive Care Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Khadijeh Yazdi yazdi@goums.ac.ir 100319475328460011508 100319475328460011508 Yes Nursing research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Gholam Ali Riahi drriyahigh@goums.ac.ir 100319475328460011509 100319475328460011509 No Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Shahid Sayad Shirazi Educational and Medical Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Zahra Mehr Bakhash mehrbakhsh@goums.ac.ir 100319475328460011510 100319475328460011510 No Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran & Department of Biostatistics, Golestan, University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. Mohammad Ahmadi 100319475328460011511 100319475328460011511 No Department of Anesthesia and Intensive care Shahid Sayad Shirazi Educational and Medical Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran