An Exploratory study on factors related to nausea and vomiting in postoperative convalescence

[[abstract]]Purpose: The purpose of this study s is to investigate the factors related to post operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) for patients going through postoperative convalescence. The nausea and vomiting scale was used for patients cared in1 hour and within 24 hours in the recovery room to see if there are different elements contributing to the risk factors which cause the incidence of PONV. It is hoped that the results of this study help nursing professionals to predict when nausea and vomiting will occur and provide management to prevent PONV to reduce the discomfort of patients.Method: The subjects of this study were 300 patients (aged over 20) operated and received anesthesia in a medical center in central Taiwan from January 1 to March 30, 2012. Clinical data were derived from medical charts. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by a structured questionnaire and analyzed based on SPPSS17.0, descriptive statistics, Chi-square and Logistic Regression analysis. Results: The results showed that female patients have higher hazard rate of nausea and vomiting during postoperative convalescence than males (odds ratio=0.325). Non-smokers have higher hazard rate than smokers (odds ratio=0.380). Patients with general anesthesia have higher rate than those with intravenous anesthesia (odds ratio=0.153). Significant difference was noticed between the severity of nausea/vomiting and discomfort. Conclusion: This is a cross-sectional study with 300 subjects. It fails to know if medications and surgery duration are related to nausea and vomiting in postoperative convalescence. The limitation of this study can be solved by longitudinal studies to provide more information for clinical nursing professionals