Domperidone in the prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting

In a series of open pilot studies, intravenous domperidone was given to three groups of post-operative patients, at doses ranging from 10 mg to 60 mg. As a result of these studies, it was decided that a regime of 20 mg initially, followed by maintenance doses of 10 mg at 6 hourly intervals was highly effective in preventing post-operative nausea and vomiting. Consequently this regime was chosen to evaluate domperidone against placebo in a double-blind study involving 106 patients. The results showed that only three out of 53 patients (5.7%) on active treatment were having nausea and vomiting compared with 16 of 53 patients (30.2%) on placebo. It is concluded that this regime is effective in preventing post-operative nausea and vomiting.