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Post anesthesia vomiting tops internet interest as well as patients' concerns

Yesterday marked the biggest day of validation for PK (propofol ketamine) anesthesia since I began advocating it nearly two decades ago.

Little did I suspect how well my June 9th press release would be received on the world wide web, especially in comparison to my previous forays.

In the first 36 hours, nine times the visitors per hour read the entire release compared to the previous one.

As I wrote in the release, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) does not kill you. It only makes you wish you were dead.

For those of you who do not know who Christian Apfel is, he is a very distinguished anesthesiologist. He is an MD, PhD researcher and clinical anesthesiologist who has published his work in many professional journals and books.

In 2004, Dr. Apfel published his PONV work in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), an accomplishment very few anesthesiologists have ever done. (The NEJM is primarily a journal for internal medicine specialists.) Dr. Apfel is, without question, the world's foremost authority in the field.

For several years on the international speaking circuit, Dr. Apfel has cited my 1999 PK anesthesia publication as a positive example of how to eliminate PONV by not giving either of the two major causes of the problem in the anesthetic - inhalational agents (i.e. 'stinky' gases) or intravenous opioids (i.e. narcotics). He further said if one does use those two classes of drugs that using anti-vomiting drugs was of little usefulness.

Having him cite the same 1999 PK anesthesia publication in his PONC chapter in the most respected and most cited anesthesia textbook, Miller's 'Anesthesia,' is just about the greatest accolade PK anesthesia could ever hope to receive.

However, if the public hopes to effect some change in anesthesia providers' practices from this validation, they need to bring a copy of the press release with them when they have their preoperative consutlation with their surgeon and insist on having the information passed along to the anesthesia staff.

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