Cancer Breast Cancer Treatment Preventing Nausea After Surgery By Pam Stephan Pam Stephan Pam Stephan is a breast cancer survivor. Learn about our editorial process Updated on July 12, 2022 Medically reviewed by Michael Menna, DO Medically reviewed by Michael Menna, DO Michael Menna, DO, is a board-certified, active attending emergency medicine physician at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. Learn about our Medical Expert Board Print Anesthesia drugs may be used to put you to sleep and/or prevent pain during your surgery, both welcome benefits. However, those same drugs may cause you to feel nauseous and to retch or vomit. The good news is that you can request pretreatment with anti-nausea (antiemetic) drugs. Getty Images Risk Factors for Nausea It's true that not everybody gets sick after surgery. If you're an adult and have the following risk factors, you may have a greater chance of having postoperative nausea and vomiting: Female Nonsmoker History of motion sickness A previous episode of postoperative nausea and vomiting Surgery that takes more than 30 minutes General anesthesia using nitrous oxide An opiate drug given for pain after the surgery Signs and Symptoms of a Reaction to Anesthesia If you have a bad reaction to anesthesia, you might vomit enough fluids to cause dehydration, resulting in low levels of electrolytes and minerals circulating in your system. Retching and repeated vomiting can leave your abdominal muscles feeling sore and weak. In rare cases, you can develop a rip in the lining of the tissue at the end of your esophagus where it meets your stomach, in which case you might see some blood when you vomit. There are good treatments for all of these problems, but you must speak up and ask for help if you need it. Medication to Prevent Nausea Your anesthesiologist can help you prevent nausea caused by anesthesia drugs. You can be given special medications just before surgery that will prevent or greatly reduce your nausea and vomiting. Be sure to take these medications exactly as prescribed because otherwise, they might not work at all. Your anesthesiologist can also give you anti-nausea drugs in your intravenous line during surgery. In the recovery room, you can be given pills or a scopolamine patch behind your ear to help prevent post-surgical nausea and vomiting. Many of these nausea medications will make you drowsy, so just take it easy and allow yourself to doze off. A Drug-Free Option If you want to try a drug-free alternative, consider an acupressure wristband. A recent review of data from 59 studies showed that when patients had wrist acupuncture or acupressure with a wristband, the effect was similar to taking medication in combatting nausea and vomiting, with fewer side effects. Pressure on your P6 wrist acupressure point signals your brain to release serotonin, dopamine, or endorphins, which block other chemicals that are causing the nausea and vomiting. Talk to Your Anesthesiologist You will meet with your anesthesiologist at your pre-operative appointment or just before surgery. It's to your benefit to be honest and accurate when talking to an anesthesiologist about your health. Let him or her know if you've had trouble with anesthesia in the past. Be sure to share about any allergies you might have. Talk about any pain, nausea, or vomiting that you've had related to surgery. Ask what treatments can be given to help you. If you're nervous about surgery, you can even ask for a sedative. During your surgery, your anesthesiologist will be responsible for keeping you comfortable and watching your vital signs. Your anesthesiologist is interested in your safety and comfort during and after surgery. Be open with him or her to make your journey safer and easier A Word From Verywell Surgery for breast cancer is a very stressful experience for most of us. We worry about the outcome as well as having immediate fears related to pain and being nauseous. There are medications that will relieve both the pain and nausea following surgery. If you receive morphine to manage postoperative pain following a mastectomy, you may experience nausea as a side effect of the morphine, in addition to nausea as a result of surgery and anesthesia. Be sure to ask for something to relieve the nausea because you need to be able to eat and sleep, and nausea can make it harder for you to do so. 4 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Hauser JM, Azzam JS, Kasi A. Antiemetic Medications. In: StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. Shaikh SI, Nagarekha D, Hegade G, Marutheesh M. Postoperative nausea and vomiting: A simple yet complex problem. Anesth Essays Res. 2016;10(3):388-396. doi:10.4103/0259-1162.179310 Weibel S, Jelting Y, Pace NL, et al. Drugs for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting in adults after general anaesthesia: a network meta‐analysis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;2017(11):CD012859. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012859 Cooke M, Rapchuk I, Doi SA, et al. Wrist acupressure for post-operative nausea and vomiting (WrAP): A pilot study. Complement Ther Med. 2015;23(3):372-80. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2015.03.007 Additional Reading Lee A, Chan SKC, Fan LTY. Wrist PC6 Acupuncture Point Stimulation to Prevent Nausea and Vomiting After Surgery. Cochrane. Porter RF, Gyawali PC. Nausea and Vomiting. Division of Gastroenterology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO. American College of Gastroenterology. Yi MS, Kang H, Kim MK, et al. Relationship Between the Incidence and Risk Factors of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Intravenous Patient-Controlled Analgesia. Asian Journal of Surgery. 2017:1015-9584. doi:10.1016/j.asjsur.2017.01.005. By Pam Stephan Pam Stephan is a breast cancer survivor. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Medical Expert Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit