Does a simplified risk score accurately predict postoperative nausea and vomiting in adult patients undergoing inhalational anesthesia?
A simplified four-predictor risk score is valid for predicting postoperative nausea and vomiting across different centers, helping to identify patients who should receive prophylactic antiemetics.
The risk scores derived from one center proved valid in the other and could be simplified without significant loss of discriminating power. Therefore, it appears that this risk score has broad applicability in predicting PONV in adult patients undergoing inhalational anesthesia for various types of surgery. For patients with at least two out of these four identified predictors a prophylactic antiemetic strategy should be considered.
Apfel et al. (Wed,) studied this question.