NCT03577496

Does Aromatherapy Decrease Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting?

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (actual)
• Sponsor: The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Aromatherapy has been proven to be effective for treating patients with postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) after surgery, but few studies analyze its effect on preventing PONV. Most studies use aromatherapy once patients become nauseous, but this study will address a gap in the literature with relation to the effect of aromatherapy in the prevention of PONV.

Detailed description

The purpose of this pilot study is to determine if aromatherapy will prevent postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Peppermint aromatherapy will be used preemptively to test for effectiveness, decreased PONV, and the ability to avoid anti-emetics. This study will seek to demonstrate that peppermint aromatherapy is a simple, cost effective way to prevent PONV after anesthesia. By decreasing the need for anti-emetics and incidence of PONV, patients may have a quicker recovery time and experience less side effects from anti-emetics, such as increased sedation. This problem is significant to patients and society as it may demonstrate that the inhalation of peppermint can ease PONV and decrease costs due to anti-emetics, wound dehiscence, and prolonged hospital stay. This study may lead to higher levels of patient satisfaction; if the patients are not nauseated they may be more satisfied with their care.

Conditions

• Nausea, Postoperative

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Peppermint oil	A cotton ball with three drops of peppermint oil will be waved under the patient's nares.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-06-15
• Primary completion: 2018-12-15
• Completion: 2018-12-15
• First posted: 2018-07-05
• Last updated: 2019-01-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States