BACKGROUND AND AIM: Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is an unpleasant and one of the most distressing symptoms frequently appearing during the first 24 hours after surgery. Besides the negative and unpleasant experience, PONV can lead to several surgical and systemic complications. It can result in electrolyte imbalance, dehydration, increased intracranial pressure, aspiration of gastric contents, bleeding and suture dehiscence. The Anaesthetist is usually blamed, despite evidence that PONV results from a variety of factors including patient characteristics, anaesthetic techniques, and the type of surgery and post-operative care. So our study aimed to determine the prevalence and identify the risk factors of post-operative nausea and vomiting in a tertiary care hospital.

METHODOLOGY: All patients above 18 years of age undergoing routine surgeries were selected from daily operation theatre lists and followed up post-operatively upto 24 hours for the presence or absence of PONV.

RESULTS: Prevalence of PONV in the study population was found to be 27.33%. There was association between female gender, non-smoker, surgery done under general anaesthesia, patients with history of PONV and motion sickness, use of volatile anaesthetics intra-operatively and use of post-operative opioids with the occurrence of PONV (95% CI, p-value 0.0002, 0.0047, 0.0091, 0.003, 0.009, 0.0004, 0.007 respectively). General, laparoscopic and breast surgeries showed a positive association with occurrence of PONV (95% CI, p-value 0.03, 0.0002, 0.0004 respectively).

CONCLUSION: Despite the use of antiemetics, whether single or dual, as part of the institutional protocol, the incidence of PONV remained high. Further research is needed to explore additional risk factors that may contribute to its occurrence.