Apfel et al developed a score for predicting the risk of postoperative vomiting in an adult. The authors are from the University of Wuerzburg in Germany.
Patient parameters:
(1) adults having elective ear, nose and throat surgery
(2) inhalational anaesthesia used with low-dose opioids and no prophylactic antiemetics.
Parameters:
(1) gender
(2) age in years
(3) smoking status
(4) history of motion sickness and/or previous postoperative nausea and vomiting
(5) duration of anaesthesia in hours
Parameter
Finding
Points
gender
male
0
female
1
smoking status
no
0
yes
1
history of motion sickness and/or previous postoperative nausea and vomiting
no
0
yes
1
Z =
= (1.28 * (points for gender)) – (0.029 * (age in years)) – (0.74 * (points for smoking)) + (0.63 * (points for history)) + (0.26 * (duration in hours)) – 0.92
probability of postoperative vomiting =
= 1 / (1 + EXP((-1) * Z))
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