Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting After Minor Oral Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

This study aimed to determine whether PONV rates differed over time and to identify potential differences in PONV risk factors for oral surgery patients undergoing general inhalational anesthesia (IA) or propofol-based total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA).

This retrospective cohort study included patients between 16 and 85 years of age and who received intubated general anesthesia with either IA or TIVA for minor oral surgery between January 2021 and July 2022. Primary outcomes were PONV overall (onset at 0-24 hours), early (onset at 0-2 hours), and late (onset at 2-24 hours). Known PONV risk factors as identified from existing literature were included for analysis.

Data were obtained from 188 patients. A total of 41 (21.8%) patients developed overall PONV, 35 patients (18.6%) had early PONV, and 14 patients (7.4%) had late PONV. Any PONV that occurred across 2 periods was categorized in each period. IA compared with TIVA had higher overall PONV (29.6% vs 13.3%; P = .008) and early PONV (25.5% vs 11.1%; P = .034). Female sex and increased Apfel scores were associated with increased overall, early, and late PONV. Per multivariate analysis, females were 2.5 to 6 times higher than males to have overall, early, and late PONV (P < .05), and IA was 3 times higher than TIVA to have overall and early, but not late, PONV (P < .05).

Our results suggested that the method of anesthesia may impact the incidence of overall and early PONV and that female sex and increase Apfel scores correlated with increased PONV through all times.