A revolution for nausea

Postoperative orders are fairly standardised, and hospitals commonly use a checklist to allow doctors to check the needed drugs rapidly. Surgical patients are more or less healthy, and we assume that a checklist will serve most patients well. One category of postoperative drugs is antiemetics, and the most commonly used are those on the checklist, such as dimenhydrinate or diphenhydramine.

In follow-up assessments of patients we are less likely to consider matters already covered by the checklist. We commonly ask about chest pain, shortness of breath, leg swelling, bowel movements, and pain for our postoperative patients-but rarely …