• Y Fujii, H Tanaka, and H Toyooka.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Toride Kyodo General Hospital, Ibaraki, Japan.
• Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 1997 Jun 1;41(6):746-9.

BackgroundPostoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) remains a troublesome problem. The study was performed to evaluate the antiemetic efficacy of prophylactic granisetron, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3 receptor antagonist, on the incidence of PONV in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for breast surgery.MethodsIn a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, 50 female patients, 45-68 years, were given a single dose of either placebo (saline, n = 25) or granisetron (40 micrograms.kg-1, n = 25) intravenously over 2-5 min immediately before the induction of anaesthesia. Postoperatively, during the first 24 hours after anaesthesia, the incidence of PONV and adverse events was recorded.ResultsThe treatment groups were similar for patient demographics, types of surgery, anaesthetic and postoperative management. Postoperatively, the incidence of PONV was 48% and 16% after administration of placebo and granisetron, respectively (P < 0.05). No differences in the incidence of other adverse events were observed between the two groups.ConclusionGranisetron is an effective antiemetic for preventing PONV in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for breast surgery.

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