Retrospective Assessment of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting after Unrestricted Clear Fluids before Day Surgery: An Observational Study

Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting after Unrestricted Clear Fluids

Abstract

Background: Nausea and vomiting during and after the surgery are distressing for both the patient and his/her family. In addition, when vomiting occurs intraoperatively under regional anaesthesia, it offers significant challenge to the operating surgeon, potentially increasing the duration of the procedure and the risk of bleeding and inadvertent associated surgical trauma. Aim of the study: To assess postoperative nausea and vomiting after unrestricted clear fluids before day surgery.Subjects and Methods:The study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Rama Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, India. For the study, medical records of 200 patients who underwent surgical procedure at the hospital were selected for review. It was made sure that included patients were restricted from fluid intake for 12 hours before the surgery. We analysed records of randomly selected 200 patients who underwent surgical procedure at the hospital for the study period.Results:A total of 200 patient records randomly selected from the pool of records were analysed in the present study. We observed that mild nausea was experienced by 27 patients, moderate was experienced by 16 patients and severe nausea was experienced by 3 patients. We observed that 14 patients had vomiting only once, 8 patients had 2-3 times vomiting and 2 patients had vomiting more than 3 times. The results were compared and found to be statistically non-significant.Conclusion: From the results of the present study, this can be concluded that restriction of food and fluid intake before the day surgery is an efficacious method in avoiding nausea and vomiting in patients during post-operative time.