Introduction:

Postoperative nausea and vomiting represent a frequent problem for both the patient and the anesthesiologist. It is estimated that the incidence of these are present in 25-30% of postoperative patients.

Objective:

To go deepen in the knowledge related to physiopathology and combination therapy in the prophylaxis of postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Method:

A bibliographic review was made of the articles published in the Pubmed, Scielo, Medline and Cochrane data bases, related to the topic, belonging to authors dedicated to the study of this problem.

Development:

The multifactorial nature of postoperative nausea and vomiting requires a multimodal approach to its treatment, which should be prophylactic rather than therapeutic, with the objective of minimizing risk. It is not reasonable to modify the dependent variables of the patient and of the surgical intervention, but it is possible to directly influence the anesthetics. In several studies, the different risk factors for PONV have been identified and, from these, predictive models have been developed to evaluate the probability of the event.

Conclusions:

postoperative nausea and vomiting are a frequent phenomenon in the postoperative period. For its prophylaxis the use of combination therapies (antidopaminergic, antihistaminic, anticholinergic, serotoninantagonists, steroids and neurokinin-1 antagonists) is recommended, givenits multifactorial component. This way of dealing with this problema allows us to reduce the frequency of these symptoms, postoperative complications and facilitate the patient's most immediate recovery.

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