Dexamethasone for the treatment of established postoperative nausea and vomiting: A randomised dose finding trial.

Background: Dexamethasone is widely used for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) but little is known about its efficacy for the treatment of established PONV.

Objective: To test the antiemetic efficacy of intravenous dexamethasone for the treatment of established PONV in adults undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia and to determine whether there is dose-responsiveness.

Design: The DexPonv trial is a multicentre, placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind, dose-finding study.

The antiemetic efficacy of droperidol added to morphine patient-controlled analgesia: a randomized, controlled, multicenter dose-finding study.

The antiemetic dose response of droperidol when it is added to patient-controlled analgesia with morphine is not well known. We randomly allocated adults who received postoperative morphine patient-controlled analgesia (1-mg bolus, 5-min lockout) to one of four regimens: no droperidol (control) or 5, 15, or 50 micro g of droperidol per milligram of morphine. Efficacy and adverse effects were recorded during 24 h and were analyzed with number needed to treat (NNT) and number needed to harm with 95% confidence intervals.