Post-Operative Therapy for Nausea or Vomiting

Specifically trained personnel will apply pressure on the wrists bilaterally at the P6 point for up to 3 minutes. The P6 point is located three fingerbreadths from the wrist crease on the volar surface of the arm between the palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis. In the event of failure in the acupressure group, further treatments will be identical to the control group. Since Ondansetron is the standard Post Anesthetic Care Unit treatment, it will be first line rescue therapy except in the case that the patient has received 8mg in the past 6 hours. If needed, further antiemetic pharmacologic treatments may include, but are not limited to, phenergan, metoclopramide, haloperidol, diphenhydramine or propofol at the clinical discretion of the patient's anesthesiology care team.

Ondansetron is a medication that belongs to the drug class known as antiemetic and selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist. Ondansetron is prescribed for the treatment of nausea and vomiting due to cancer chemotherapy and also used to prevent and treat nausea and vomiting after surgery.