Postoperative nausea and vomiting in South Africa – the next step

Abstract

In this month’s edition of the journal, Magni et al. describe the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in healthy term patients undergoing elective spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section in two hospitals in the Western Cape.¹ Among the 258 recruited patients, the overall incidence of PONV was 33% (95% confidence interval [CI] 28-40%). Of note, the incidence of nausea among Black African patients was 24.8% as compared to 42% in non-Black African patients (p = 0.004); no significant difference was seen in the incidence of vomiting (6.8% vs 7.1%; p = 1.0). This study is the first to formally show this difference in an obstetric population in South Africa.