Effectiveness of oral peppermint as treatment of postoperative nausea after gynecological surgery

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an oral peppermint lozenge as a treatment for postoperative nausea and vomiting among females undergoing a gynecological operative procedure under general anesthesia.
Methods: Prospective design with consented subjects randomly assigned to either the control or the intervention group. A total of 132 subjects were assigned to the intervention group. Postoperative nausea was assessed upon admission to the post-anesthesia care unit using the Aldrete Scoring System and the Discomfort and Intervention Assessment Measure. The intervention was administered to subjects when the assessment indicated nausea. Data was collected from subjects in the control group for comparison purposes.
Results: Demographically, there were minor variances between the control and intervention groups, none of which were statistically significant. Of the 12 subjects who required the intervention, it successfully treated their postoperative nausea 9 times, with 3 of the subjects requiring the administration of an antiemetic.
Conclusions: Consideration for oral peppermint, as treatment of postoperative nausea, should be explored. The results of this study demonstrate its ability to resolve the experience with no adverse effects noted, and decreasing the need for an antiemetic drug.

Keywords

Postoperative / Nausea / Vomiting / Peppermint lozenge / Gynecological surgery

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge N. Patonai MD. Of Anesthesiology and I. Rosbrugh MD Urogynecologist for their support and approval of this research. We would also like to thank the hospital administrators, patients, and staff for their support.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

TSK, BS, and KB conceived the research idea and secured physician and administrative support. AP and PWS developed the study framework and oversaw research approval activities. Study data were collected by TSK, MK, and KB. PWS performed the computations, with AP and TSK verifying the results. All authors contributed to the final manuscript and required edits, which were supervised by AP. Each author has provided approval for the final manuscript to be published.

FUNDING

There is no funding associated with this study.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

INFORMED CONSENT

Obtained.

ETHICAL STATEMENT

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board contracted with the Healthcare Organization. Approval number #13150.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Sciedu Press. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

The data can be requested from the corresponding author.

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

COPYRIGHTS

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

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