Comparison of Palonosetron Versus Palonosetron and Dexamethasone for Prevention of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting After Middle Ear Surgeries: A Randomized Controlled Study

BACKGROUND: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) are one of the common distressing conditions after anesthesia. The PONV are related to several potential risk factors are patient related, anesthesia related, and surgery related. In surgery-related risk, middle ear surgery is associated with a high incidence of PONV. AIMS: This study aimed to compare the efficiency of palonosetron versus palonosetron with dexamethasone in the prevention of PONV in middle ear surgeries. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind study. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data were presented as descriptive statistics for continuous variables and percentages for categorical variables and were subjected to Z-test/Chi-square test/Fisher's exact test. The value of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Demographic parts in comparison to age, duration of surgery, and duration of anesthesia were similar in both the groups. Our study showed that the incidence of PONV during 0–6 h was 38% (n = 19) in Group A and 12% (n = 6) in Group B and the incidence during 6–12 h postoperatively was 14% (n = 7) in Group A and 8% (n = 4) in Group B. During 12–24 h, the incidence was 8% (n = 4) and 6% (n = 3) in Group A and B, respectively. Hence, the difference of total early PONV in Group A was 60% (n = 30) and in Group B, it was 26% (n = 13) which was statistically significant (P < 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: The above result proves that palonosetron and dexamethasone group is superior in the prevention of PONV in middle ear surgery.