Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) still represents one of the most distressing side effects of anaesthesia and surgery. Clinical risk scores e.g. Apfel score is today commonly used to identify patients at risk. We found in a previous study different platelet counts in patients with and without PONV. The aim of the present explorative study was to assess whether females experiencing PONV after breast surgery had any difference in preoperative platelet count and/or volume assessed by platelet testing.
Methods: All women scheduled for elective breast cancer surgery at Danderyds Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, during one year were asked to participate in this study. Occurrence of PONV during the 24 first postoperative hours was studied. Blood samples collected preoperatively were analysed by platelet counts determined by impedance (PTLi) and optical (PTLo) methods, mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW) and plateletcrit (PCT). Platelet data were compared between patients with and without PONV.
Results: In all 183 patients were included in the study, 65 (35%) suffered from PONV, increasing incidence with increased risk score 4 out 5 with 4 risk factors. Mean platelet count was 266 [114-538], mean platelet volume 8.59 [5.94-12.1] and mean platelet weight 16.17 [14.2-25.9] but no differences in any platelet test variables studied were found between patients with or without PONV or with increasing risk factors.
Conclusion: One third of patients' experienced PONV, increased incidence associated to Apfel score but platelet numbers and simple platelet test provided no additional information around risk for PONV.
Keywords: Breast surgery; PONV; Platelet; Risk score.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.