Research Evaluation of Preoperative Risk Assessment and Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting: Importance for Nurses Sinem Gecit, RN * , Turkan Ozbayir, PhD Nursing Faculty, Surgical Nursing Department, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey Keywords: postoperative nausea postoperative vomiting PONV risk assessment preoperative assessment abstract Purpose: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) continues to be one of the most common post- operative complications affecting one of four patients. The aim of this study was to assess the importance of preoperative risks and PONV, and to determine the significance for nurses. Design: This was a descriptive study. Methods: The study was carried out with 242 patients in the surgical clinics of a university hospital. The data of the study were evaluated via a “Patient Information Form” and “Patient Evaluation Form,” including Apfel and Koivuranta Nausea Vomiting Risk Scores, before and after surgery. Findings: At the end of the study, 45.9% of the patients were found to have nausea and 23.6% suffered vomiting. The average Apfel risk score of patients was 1.88 ± 1.16, and the Koivuranta risk score was 2.35 ± 1.07. Conclusions: The study found that more patients had nausea than vomiting in the postoperative period. We recommend that the risk scores used in the early determination of PONV should be evaluated by nurses and health care workers in the preoperative period. Furthermore, nursing care planning is rec- ommended for patients identified as at risk of PONV. © 2020 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is nausea and vomiting that occurs within the first 24-hour period after surgery. 1 PONV has been recognized as a surgical problem since 1848. 2 Each year, more than 75 million surgical patients globally receive anes- thesia, 3 and PONV is one of the most commonly reported adverse effects of anesthesia. 4,5 Postoperative nausea occurs with an inci- dence of approximately 40% to 50%, vomiting at 25% to 30%, and PONV at 30%. 4-7 Despite anesthetic and surgical advances, the estimated incidence of PONV in patients with risk factors is 80%. 8,9 This negatively affects the care of patients in the postoperative period. PONV causes many complications such as dehydration, elec- trolyte imbalance and related cardiac arrhythmias, aspiration of stomach contents, wound dehiscence, esophageal rupture, subcutaneous emphysema, and bilateral pneumothorax. 1,2, 10, 11 As a result of these complications, the quality of care of the patients is affected and the postoperative hospital stay period is pro- longed. 1 Consequently, PONV is an important problem that af- fects patients negatively and increases the workload for nurses. 12, 13 There are numerous factors affecting PONV. Knowing the risk factors for PONV is necessary for accurate identification of high- risk patients and management of PONV. 14 The use of a simplified model to determine risk factors shortens the duration of hos- pitalization by significantly reducing the rate of PONV, and al- lows clinicians, and the whole medical team, to evaluate patients and take appropriate measures. Two scoring systems are widely used to predict the risk of PONV in adult surgical patients, one developed by Apfel et al, 15 and the other by Koi- vuranta et al. 16 As a result, PONV, which is among the causes of vital and life- threatening complications affecting the patient's postoperative care period, is still an issue that needs to be further investigated, because it is still occurring at high rates and evaluation deficiencies continue to be seen. Conflict of interest: None to report. This study was conducted as a master's thesis and finished in 2015. * Address correspondence to: Sinem Gecit, Nursing Faculty, Surgical Nursing Department, Ege University, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey. E-mail address: sinemgecit@gmail.com (S. Gecit). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing journal homepage: www.jopan.org https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jopan.2020.04.006 1089-9472/© 2020 American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing 35 (2020) 625e629