Assessment of post-operative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis usage for cesarean section, 2021: A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) are common and distressing to patients. This common anesthetic and surgical side effect has been reported to increase patient dissatisfaction and can be more distressing to patients than post-operative pain. It has multi-factorial causes: patient, anesthesia and surgery related risk factors have been identified. Prevention of PONV is important since it has psychological and physical effects, and it can also cause severe complications. OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of practice of PONV prophylaxis usage for caesarean section. METHODS: This clinical perspective study was conducted at all pregnant mothers scheduled for caesarean section under anesthesia from March 1 to March 30, 2021 consecutively. The standards were directly changed into question forms with two integral checking components, “Yes”, and “No”. Data were entered and analyzed by statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version 20. RESULTS: A total of 100 parturients scheduled for caesarean section were included with a response rate of 100%. Based on the standards, Anti-emetic treatment to patients with post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV), adherence of anesthetists to local evidence based guideline for PONV prevention and more importantly no prophylactic administration to patients at low risk for PONV were implemented with a percentage of 17%,47%, and 14% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: and recommendations: There was a significant performance gap in the clinical practice of prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting. We strongly suggest that adherence to a Protocol to reduce baseline risk and the adoption of a multimodal approach will highly likely ensure success in the management of PONV. The usage of appropriate anti-emetic prophylaxis to the right patient is necessary to have a good outcome after surgery and anesthesia.