Postoperative nausea and vomiting: risk factors, prediction tools, and algorithms

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Perioperative Medicine
• Surgical Patient Care

Background:

• Postoperative/postdischarge nausea and vomiting (PONV/PDNV) are significant challenges in perioperative care.
• PONV can impede same-day surgery discharge and lead to hospital readmissions.

Approach:

• Review of current evidence for PONV and PDNV management.
• Emphasis on implementation of existing evidence-based guidelines.

Key Points:

• Strong evidence supports PONV management, yet implementation remains suboptimal.
• A universal, multimodal prophylaxis strategy is now favored over risk-adapted approaches.
• Insufficient evidence currently exists for specific PDNV management protocols.

Conclusions:

• Effective PDNV management relies heavily on the successful prophylaxis and treatment of PONV.
• Further research is needed to establish specific guidelines for PDNV.