Publication Details
Abstract
PONV remains the most frequent side effect of general anesthesia which contributes significantly to patients’ dissatisfactions, complications and costs. Chewing gum potentially can be novel, drug free alternative for PONV . There is a big issue in modern anesthetic practices due to the consequences like unpredicted hospital admission, late work return to ambulatory people, dehydration, wound dehiscence and pulmonary aspiration. A holistic approach can be tried for the high request for ambulatory surgeries prior to and during surgeries for the prevention of PONV. We conduct trial of the efficacy of mint flavored chewing gum as a prophylactic measure to prevent PONV as a part of post anesthesia care. A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted. 88 female patients of age (37-62 years old) with volatile anesthetic according to general anesthesia for laparoscopic cholecystectomy will be randomized. All randomized patients have grade 3 risk factor for PONV according to APFL score, 44 patients asked for chewing mint flavored gum after having grade 5 OAA/S score (respond to name in normal tone) and the other 44 patients conducted as a control group. Both groups had monitored for PONV for three hours in the postoperative period. In the chewing gum group, nine patients experienced PONV (20.5%), while nineteen patients of the control group had PONV (43.2%). The symbol * indicates a significant difference between percentages was determined by the Pearson Chi-square (χ²) test at a significance (0.05) and # the Student's t-test at a 0.05 significance level showing significant differences between two independent means. Chewing gum showed a prophylactic efficacy in managing PONV in female patients taking laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Further research with larger sample size and many kinds of surgeries are essential to investigate this therapy.