Introduction:

Postoperative nausea and vomiting are frequent complications of anesthesia, the prevention of this complication is fundamental from the pre-anesthetic period. Its etiology is multifactorial with variable prevalences ranging from 20 to 92%.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of postoperative nausea and vomiting in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a tertiary care hospital.

Material and methods:

An observational, descriptive, prospective and longitudinal study was conducted in patients who were scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a tertiary care hospital, the presentation of nausea, vomiting and the combination of both symptoms was measured, upon awakening of the patient, the first, second and twenty-four postoperative.

Results:

224 patients were included, of which the female sex represented 75.45%, with an average age of 44.4 ± 13.9 years. The prevalence of nausea in the first 24 hours was 33.03%. and it was preceded by vomiting in 93.24% of patients with a prevalence of 31.25%. the combination of both symptoms; postoperative nausea and vomiting, had a prevalence of 33.5%. The type of prophylactic medication that was received the majority was ondansetron with 48.86%, the prevalence of postoperative nausea and vomiting had no difference in the prophylactic treatment used. Treatment with opioids is one of the factors that was associated with a greater presentation of nausea and/or vomiting.