Intravenous Dexamethasone As Post Operative Antiemetic

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the prophylactic anti-emetic effect of intravenous dexamethasone in post operative nausea and vomiting. The following were found to increase the incidence of PONV: Female gender, history of PONV, history of motion sickness, post operative pain and type of operation mainly laproscopic surgery. One hundred fifty patients requiring general anesthesia for different types of operations were enrolled in a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study. Fifty patients received dexamethasone 6mg intravenously group (A), 50 patients received dexamethasone 10mg i.v group (B) and 50 patients taken as control group received normal saline 2ml i.v group (C) at the induction of anesthesia. We found that, the comparison between the three groups showed: Group (A) 22% of patient had Nausea, 12% of patient had vomiting. Group (B) 16% of patient had Nausea, 12% of patient had vomiting. Group (C) 76% of patient had Nausea, 44% of patient had vomiting. The study clearly showed that dexamethasone 10mg and 6mg significantly decreased the incidence of postoperative vomiting, while dexamethasone 10mg was more effective in reducing the incidence of post operative nausea.