Nausea and vomiting after surgery

Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is defined as any nausea, retching, or vomiting occurring during the first 24‐48 h after surgery in inpatients. PONV is one of the most common causes of patient dissatisfaction after anaesthesia, with reported incidences of 30% in all post-surgical patients and up to 80% in high-risk patients. In addition, PONV is regularly rated in preoperative surveys, as the anaesthesia outcome the patient would most like to avoid. It is therefore not surprising that patients across Europe and North America express a high willingness-to-pay ($50‐100) to avoid PONV. While suture dehiscence, aspiration of gastric contents, oesophageal rupture, and other serious complications associated with PONV are rare, nausea and vomiting is still an unpleasant and all-too-common postoperative morbidity that can delay patient discharge from the post-anaesthesia care unit and increase unanticipated hospital admissions in outpatients.