Operation-specific risk of postoperative nausea: a cross-sectional study comparing 72 procedures

Objectives Determination of the procedure-specific, risk-adjusted probability of nausea.Design Cross-sectional analysis of clinical and patient-reported outcome data. We used a logistic regression model with type of operation, age, sex, preoperative opioids, antiemetic prophylaxis, regional anaesthesia, and perioperative opioids as predictors of postoperative nausea.Setting Data from 152 German and Austrian hospitals collected in the Quality Improvement in Postoperative Pain Treatment (QUIPS) registry from 2013 to 2022. Participants completed a validated outcome questionnaire on the first postoperative day. Operations were categorised into groups of at least 100 cases.Participants We included 78 231 of the 293 947 participants from the QUIPS registry. They were 18 years or older, willing and able to participate and could be assigned to exactly one operation group.Main outcome measures Adjusted absolute risk of nausea on the first postoperative day for 72 types of operation.Results The adjusted absolute risk of nausea ranged from 6.2% to 36.2% depending on the type of operation. The highest risks were found for laparoscopic bariatric operations (36.2%), open hysterectomy (30.4%), enterostoma relocation (29.8%), open radical prostatectomy (28.8%), laparoscopic colon resection (28.6%) and open sigmoidectomy (28%). In a logistic regression model, male sex (OR: 0.39, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.41, p