Added Oxygen in Anesthesia Curbs Post-Surgical Nausea

The nausea that strikes most people on awakening after surgery can be sharply reduced by simply giving the patients more oxygen during and after the surgery, according to UC San Francisco researchers. About seven of every 10 people experience nausea or vomiting after general anesthesia.

Dr. Daniel Sessler reports in the November Anesthesiology that using 80% oxygen in the gas mixture administered during and after surgery, instead of the conventional 30% oxygen, reduced post-surgical nausea by half.