“Sickness after anesthesia?”

Relatively common. Ask your anesthesiologist about means to prevent nausea

Each person is different in accordance with his/her sensitivities. Also, recovery from nausea/vomiting after anesthesia depends as well on the underlying cause which many times could be the nature and duration of the surgical procedure itself. Some people require several hours to recover from the nauseating affects of anesthesia. Beyond that, one should probably
search for other causes.

Nausea and/or vomiting (N/V) after anesthesia is a common occurrence for many people. People who suffer from motion sickness almost always have some sort of nausea. Certain procedures, including obstetrics, GYN and eye surgery, stimulate the nausea centers and can make a patient more susceptible to N/V. The medications given, especially opioids and anesthesia gas itself, increase the likelihood of experiencing N/V. General anesthesia, with the anesthesia gases, is more likely to cause N/V than IV anesthesia.

There are medicines that can be given to assist in preventing N/V before, during and after the surgery. These usually work for those who have had only minor nausea in the past. Unfortunately, these medicines often only reduce the symptoms in those who have severe symptoms. Also if the anti-nausea medicines don't work for a given type of anesthesia, you will probably always have nausea for that type of anesthetic. The same is true that if you usually don't experience nausea with surgery, you are less likely to develope it in the future.

One thing I don't recommend is getting anti nausea medicine for your first anesthetic. All of these medicines have side affects and there is no need to add these drugs if you don't know if anesthesia causes you nausea.

Finally, everyone is different. Many people don't experience nausea at all. Some experience nausea less than an hour after anesthesia. And then there are those who have to be admitted to the hospital to help control their nausea. Based on my experience, among those who do experience nausea, suffer from it for 1 or 2 hours.

It depends on the medications being given. Many narcotic pain medications have a side-effect of nausea. Use of inhaled (gas) anesthesia may lead to more nausea as well. Since this is a known side effect, and if you have had problems with anesthesia or certain types of anesthetics in the past, it is the usual custom to meet with your anesthetic provider prior to administration of anesthesia to review your history and perform a physical. We often utilize Zofran (R) an anti-nausea agent or other similar type agents prior to anesthesia depending on length of the case or in recovery area to minimize this effect.

Nausea, or PONV (post-operative nausea and vomiting), is unfortunately a possible side-effect of anesthesia. Several factors determine your risk: age, sex, smoking status, type of operation, and length of the procedure. Lengthy abdominal procedures have a higher risk for PONV than, say, a short operation of the hand or foot. General anesthetics that use inhaled agents also increase that risk. If you have a prior history of PONV or are someone that is easily prone to motion sickness, you are likely more prone to developing PONV.


With these risk factors in mind, we typically employ several agents during the course of an anesthetic to help prevent PONV. These various drugs work at different receptors throughout the body and help prevent the transmission of noxious stimuli to the vomiting center of the brain. Prevention is the best course...some of these drugs are more effective prior to the occurrence of PONV, although we do have several others that work as "rescue" agents. The key is to let your anesthesiologist know ahead of time so that an effective plan can be formulated prior to the administration of the anesthetic.

Nausea and vomiting is the most common complication post anesthesia.Goes from 30% to 70%Incidence.Is more frecuent in woman.non smoker.and in pte under opiods or narcotics.Could be very annoying but is not fatal.It usually dissapear in 24 or 48 hours.There are certain procedures that is more frecuent as ;laparoscopy..and ear surgeries.Also increase in menses.

They subside with your recovery
And Medicines

The nausea rate is less than it was in the past but is somewhat dependent on what Anesthesia meds were given and what type of Surgery it was. Certain surgeries definitely have higher nausea rates. Total IntraVenous Anesthesia or TIVA has a lower rate of nausea than the gas agents. Certain meds like Zofran are often given to help prevent nausea but nothing is 100% effective for prevention.

People who suffer from motion or sea sickness or migraines are predisposed to developing sickness with anaesthetics. Nausea and sickness is a side effect of anaesthesia that not many people get, however it can be avoided by giving medications prophylactically, before it happens.

Other factors that can bring the sickness on is the length of procedure, site of procedure, and type of anaesthetic drugs used. Generally speaking, TIVA - total intravenous anaesthesia is less likely to cause nausea and sickness in comparison to inhalation anesthesia.

Hi,

There are some factors that increase the risk of nausea with surgery. Being female, non-smoker, history of motion sickness, previous history of nausea with anesthesia, certain types of surgeries, general anesthesia with volatile agents. The duration of nausea can vary, depending on the above factors, if opiate medications were used to treat pain, amount of motion or transportation after surgery, and hydration. Always let your anesthesia provider know if you get nauseated with anesthesia so a plan can be formulated to suit your anesthetic needs.

Good luck,

Dr Ketch

Postoperative nausea and vomitting are common side effects of some anesthetic agents and most of the time could be prevented by using certain medication or modified anesthetic techniques. Some people, particularly young patients, are more prone to nausea and vomitting and they experience discomfort in spite of all the techniques and medication that we use.
It could last from several hours to 24 hours postoperative.

I used to always do some portion of my anesthetic as a Diprivan infusion and rarely if ever saw nausea or vomiting. Come see us if the problem persists.

Nausea and vomiting (N/V) are not common after general anesthesia. In our practice, it's about 2-4%. However, N/V can be results of a number of causes (fear, anxiety, hunger, nature of your surgery (type and location), side effects from medications (not limited to narcotics), low blood count, dehydration,...etc. However, certain surgeries and medications do tend to have higher incidence of N/V (intracranial, ENT, and intraabdominal surgeries, narcotics and muscle relaxant reversals). If you let your anesthesiologist know about your experience of N/V and anesthesia, he or she will be able take measures to minimize your incidents of N/V.

Typically, N/V tend to last about 2-3 hrs to a day.

Quite common, particularly if you had anesthesia before and had nausea or vomiting. It can last from hours to a day or two. Alert your anesthesiologist if you had previous nausea or vomiting after anesthesia, so the doctor can initiate a prophylactic treatment during surgery and modify anesthetic plan.

Sickness after anesthesia is quite common. People who have usually motion sickness are at increased risk. You want to let your anesthesia provider know about that. The symptoms should in general not last longer than 1-2 hours. Certain surgeries have an increased risk (Eye, ENT procedures as well as laparoscopic interventions).

Nausea and vomiting are well known complications of general anesthesia. The more empty your stomach is, the less nausea you will have, which is why a fasting period of 8-12 hours is recommended prior to surgery. Also, anesthesiologists are well aware of the risk and nearly always give multiple anti-nausea medications to prevent nausea. If a patient still develops nausea after anesthesia and surgery, then the same or different anti-nausea medications can be given intravenously to dissipate nausea within a minute or two.