Consideration of Migraines Among Risk Factors for Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting

The impact of migraine on postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is controversial, and few studies have focused on their relationship. Thus, we investigated the impact of migraine, among other risk factors, on PONV in a large retrospective study. We analyzed 10 years of clinical data from the Smart Clinical Data Warehouse of Hallym University Medical Center. PONV was defined as nausea or vomiting within the first 24 h after surgery. Patients diagnosed by a neurologist and with a history of triptan use before surgery were enrolled into the migraine group. We enrolled 208,029 patients aged > 18 years who underwent general anesthesia (GA), among whom 19,786 developed PONV within 24 h after GA and 1982 had migraine. Before propensity score matching, the unadjusted and fully adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for PONV in subjects with versus without migraine were 1.52 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.34-1.72; p < 0.001) and 1.37 (95% CI, 1.21-1.56; p < 0.001), respectively. The OR for PONV in patients with migraine was also high (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.13-1.66; p = 0.001) after matching. Our findings suggest that migraine is a significant risk factor for PONV.

Keywords: general anesthesia; migraine; postoperative nausea and vomiting.