Postdischarge Nausea and Vomiting and Co-occurring Symptoms in Women Following Breast Cancer Surgery.
Susan W Wesmiller, Catherine M Bender, Susan C Grayson and 6 others
PMID 36635124WHAT IT FOUND
Two days after breast cancer surgery, 25.1% of women reported nausea; many said it began during the drive home.
Pain, fatigue, opioid use, surgery type, and motion sickness history were associated with it.
Key findings
01Of 334 women, 84 (25.1%) reported nausea two days after discharge, and 40 (52%) reported nausea as 4 or more on a 0–10 scale.
02In the adjusted analysis, pain and fatigue were significantly associated with post-discharge nausea, while sleep disturbance and anxiety were not.
03Opioid use, surgery type, and history of motion sickness were also significantly associated with post-discharge nausea, while age and history of postoperative nausea were not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it shows that symptoms occurred together with nausea but cannot prove pain or fatigue caused nausea. Nausea, vomiting, pain, fatigue, and other symptoms were reported by patients by phone and not directly observed. The sample was mostly White (88%) and non-smokers (90%), and smoking was excluded from the final model because only 10% were current smokers. The analysis focused on nausea because vomiting was uncommon (5%). No antiemetic, opioid, education, or symptom-management strategy was tested, so the study cannot show which intervention would prevent post-discharge nausea.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating pain or fatigue will prevent post-discharge nausea. The study found associations at one time point and did not test any intervention.