ABSTRACT

 Background and Aim: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) are common and unpleasant complications. Various drugs are used for prevention and treatment of PONV. But it stands to reason to overcome this problem by the anesthetic drug itself. In this study, the effects of propofol versus thiopental on PONV were evaluated.

 Material and Methods: This was a double blind clinical trial. In a period of 8 months, ninety patients (aged between 18-50 years) who had been scheduled for elective surgery (ASA physical status I) were entered into this study and randomly divided into two comparable groups group A received 2 mg/kg propofol IV and group B received 5 mg/kg thiopental sodium for induction of anesthesia. Each group included 45 patients. The patients were observed for 12 hours for PONV (2 hours after operation in the recovery room and 10 hours in the surgery ward. The results were processed with SPSS soft ware and analyzed by means of student t-test.

 Results: The results of this study showed that in propofol group the number of episodes of nausea and vomiting was less than that of thiopental group which revealed a significant difference (p<0.05). The mean age of the patients was 29.4±9. 51.12% of the patients were female and 48.86% were male which revealed no significant difference between the two groups.

 Conclusion: Propofol is more beneficial than thiopental for the prevention of PONV and it is recommended to be used for induction of anesthesia, when PONV may be life threatening.