Effect of ice-lollies on the recovery time after anaesthesia: protocol for a cluster-randomised trial (Icesthesia)

Effective management in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) is essential to ensure patient safety, comfort, and timely progression through the surgical care pathway. Many patients experience side effects such as nausea, vomiting, sore throat, hoarseness, dizziness, and disorientation. These symptoms can prolong recovery time. Ice-lollies are a pragmatic, non-pharmacologic intervention. We aim to test the hypothesis that offering ice-lollies in the PACU shorten the patients' length of stay in post-anaesthesia care. Icesthesia is a prospective monocentric cluster-randomised single-blinded controlled clinical superiority trial in 3140 patients admitted to the PACU of a large university medical centre after anaesthesia. Days are randomised to intervention days with ice-lollies plus standard of care and control days with standard of care only. Anonymised patient data is collected. The primary outcome is the length of time spent in the PACU until decision to discharge. Secondary outcomes are pain medication consumption, nausea and vomiting, and postoperative delirium at discharge. This trial determines if offering ice-lollies to patients postoperatively reduces the length of stay in the PACU compared to standard of care. German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00037179) on 11th June 2025.