Abstract     Background and aims: Postoperativesore throat (POST) is a complication in patients undergoing endotracheal intubation for general anaesthesia Avoiding POST symptoms is a major priority for these patients. This study was done to primarily assess the incidence and severity of POST in the distilled water gargle group and compare it with Ketamine gargle group in patient undergoing elective surgical procedures performed under GA with tracheal intubation. Methods: Patients were randomly allocated in to two groups of 30 Patients each.GroupKFor30 patients, 50mg Ketamine diluted in 29 ml of distilled water was given. Group C-For 30 patients, 30 ml of distilled water was given. all Patients were made to gargle for 30 seconds, 5minutes before induction. In the postoperative period the incidence, duration and severity of sore throat was evaluated at 4, 8 and 24 hours. Results: Demographic characteristics such as age, height, sex, weight, duration of surgery were comparable, Incidence of postoperative sore throat was higher in control group at all the time compared to the Ketamine group. Most of the patients were complaining of mild sore throat in both the groups at 4hr, 8hr and 24 hr. But none had severe sore throat in Ketamine group where as in control group 23.3% at 4hr, 10% at 8hr and 3.3% at 24hr complained of severe sore throat. At 24^th hour the incidence and severity of sore throat was significantly reduced in both the groups 4 (13.3) in group K and 14(46.7%) in group C. Conclusion: The incidence of POST in the patients undergoing GA with endotracheal intubation for routine surgical cases is quite common and this throat discomfort remains for next 24 hrs and Ketamine gargle significantly reduces the incidence and severity of POST.