Aims: There is empirical evidence that smokers are less likely to suffer from postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). We sought to investigate whether transcutaneus nicotine prevents PONV.
Methods: Non-smokers receiving general anaesthesia for surgery were randomly allocated to Nicotinell Patch 10cm(2) (TTS 10), containing 17.5mg of nicotine (average delivery rate, 7mg 24h(-1) ) or matching placebo patch. Patches were applied 1h before surgery and were left in situ until 24h after surgery (or until the first PONV symptoms occurred).
Results: We randomized 90 patients (45 nicotine, 45 placebo). In the post-anaesthetic care unit, the incidence of nausea was 22.2% with nicotine and 24.4% with placebo (P= 0.80), and the incidence of vomiting was 20.0% with nicotine and 17.8% with placebo (P= 0.78). Cumulative 24h incidence of nausea was 42.2% with nicotine and 40.0% with placebo (P= 0.83), and of vomiting was 31.1% with nicotine and 28.9% with placebo (P= 0.81). PONV episodes tended to occur earlier in the nicotine group. Postoperative headache occurred in 17.8% of patients treated with nicotine and in 15.6% with placebo (P= 0.49). More patients receiving nicotine reported a low quality of sleep during the first postoperative night (26.7% vs. 6.8% with placebo; P= 0.01).
Conclusions: Non-smokers receiving a prophylactic nicotine patch had a similar incidence of PONV during the first 24h and tended to develop PONV symptoms earlier compared with controls. They had a significantly increased risk of insomnia during the first postoperative night.
© 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2011 The British Pharmacological Society.