As such we have ended up with this post, looking at one particular paper on the subject. After a few pubmed searches, this paper in Anesthesia & Analgesia surfaced:
Laryngotracheal Topicalization with Lidocaine Before Intubation Decreases the Incidence of Coughing on Emergence from General Anaesthesia.
It seemed a suitable starting point to build on my ‘n of 2’ personal experience to see if there was evidence of a similar degree of efficacy. A double blinded RCT in a major paper seemed a great place to start with this, so let’s have a look at it.