Strategies to Prevent Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting

Abstract

Nausea and vomiting seen within the post-operative recovery room or 24 hours following the operationremain one of the most common complications in the postoperative period. Nausea and vomitingdecrease the patient's postoperative satisfaction, which may lead to complications, such as aspirationof gastric contents, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, hemorrhage, it may also bring about economiclosses, prolongs recovery time and length of hospital stay. Therefore, in the preoperative process, it isvery important to investigate the risks correctly for each patient concerning postoperative nausea andvomiting and to identify and apply risk-reducing pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatmentmethods. In this review, the importance of postoperative nausea and vomiting, risk factors, strategies toreduce risks and the treatment algorithm used in prophylaxis are presented.