Nausea and Vomiting Prevention

Scottsdale – Developing an affective approach to the problem of Post Surgery Nausea and Vomiting after plastic surgery of the body and facial plastic surgery begins with a proper risk assessment. A number of published studies have detailed the development of risk assessment scoring systems which your doctor can use to manage your care and make the anesthesia experience better for you. Most anesthesia providers can classify patients into low, moderate or high risk for after surgery nausea without the use of scoring systems. Certain obvious patient characteristics are associated with a higher risk of Post-Op Nausea and Vomiting, including:

  • younger age
  • female gender
  • large body mass index

Tell your anesthesia doctor about these key factors below that may also increase the risks of anesthesia-related nausea and vomiting:

  • if you have a history of Post Operative Nausea and Vomiting with a previous surgery
  • if you have history you have a history of motion sickness
  • If you are anxious or have anxiety about your cosmetic surgery procedure

If you are having a plastic surgery operation on the anatomic areas below, you may be predisposed to a higher risk of Post-Op Nausea and Vomiting:

  • head and neck procedures, including facelift and eyelid lift
  • abdominal surgery, possibly including tummy tuck and bodylift operations
  • laparoscopic surgery
  • gynecologic procedures

Certain types of medications used with anesthesia are known to increase the incidence of nausea after surgery:

  • opioids
  • reversal agents for neuromuscular blockade

It would be ideal not to use aggressive methods of nausea prevention for low risk patients. For patients at moderate risk, some prophylaxis followed by aggressive treatment if nausea and vomiting develops is warranted.

For those patients at high risk, aggressive prophylaxis and treatment may seem costly, but becomes cost-effective when the issues of patients satisfaction and avoidance of unplanned admission are considered.