Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Feb 1989
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialProphylactic transdermal scopolamine patches reduce nausea in postoperative patients receiving epidural morphine.
To evaluate the efficacy of prophylactic transdermal scopolamine in reducing nausea associated with postoperative epidural analgesia, we studied 32 healthy adult women undergoing major gynecologic surgery. The patients were randomized in a double blind fashion to receive either a cutaneous scopolamine patch or a visually identical cutaneous placebo patch. Postoperative analgesia was provided solely with epidural morphine. ⋯ The number of patients reporting "zero nausea" was significantly greater with scopolamine patches than with placebo patches (13 vs 1, P less than 0.01). The mean number of times antiemetic drugs were administered per patient was lower with scopolamine than with placebo patches (0.2 +/- 0.4 vs 2.8 +/- 2.6, P less than 0.05). It is concluded that prophylactic transdermal scopolamine patches reduce nausea in postoperative patients receiving epidural morphine.