Have y'all heard of this?

[Goro]

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I first heard of using isopropyl swabs as an anti-nauseant from a Facebook post, of all things. So I went to the posted link and I thought, "this sounds crazy"

Then I went to Pubmed, and found out that this is actually a thing, with some papers describing the effect.

It's in the line of "We don't know why it works, but it does and we use it"

Wise colleagues, what say you?

A few papers:
Aromatherapy for treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting. - PubMed - NCBI
Isopropyl alcohol inhalation as treatment for nausea and vomiting. - PubMed - NCBI
An alternative method to alleviate postoperative nausea and vomiting in children. - PubMed - NCBI
Inhaled isopropyl alcohol for nausea and vomiting in the emergency department. - PubMed - NCBI

 

[deleted109597]

We use it a lot in EMS and the ER.
I would imagine it works by overloading the olfactory nerve with turns off the nausea centers.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Yes. Learned it from a trauma surgeon.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Every time I hear about this I think, "I'm absolutely using that trick".

And every time someone starts vomiting, I just write for zofran.

 

[southerndoc]

Every time I hear about this I think, "I'm absolutely using that trick".

And every time someone starts vomiting, I just write for zofran.

Hail to the vitamin Z!

 

[thegenius]

I gave the alcohol swabs to a patient once with nausea and had her sniff it, after about 10 sniffs she put it down and said "didn't do anything for my nausea."

I reckon you have to sniff that stuff for a long time to get it to work.

 

[gamerEMdoc]

I gave the alcohol swabs to a patient once with nausea and had her sniff it, after about 10 sniffs she put it down and said "didn't do anything for my nausea."

I reckon you have to sniff that stuff for a long time to get it to work.

I think its 3 sniffs every 15 minutes or something like that.

 

[thegenius]

I think its 3 sniffs every 15 minutes or something like that.

LOL

Three sniffs q15 mins PRN nausea. that can be an order

I'm going to try it when I get to work tonight. Although i don't have nausea. Maybe I'll induce it by smelling some homeless feet prior to coming in.

 

[Tiger26]

More posts like this and JCAHO will make us put them in the PYXIS ...

 

[DrDrummer]

Yes. It works, I use it and patients and nurses are usually into it. It works better for people that genuinely feel nauseated than for refractory scromiting.

 

[dchristismi]

I use it when I remember - and printed the article in annals just recently for a nurse who asked about it.
One of her colleagues commented that she'd used it in her pregnancies and it seemed to help.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

BUT WHAT IS THE PREGNANCY CATEGORY OF SNORTING THIS

WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN

 

[Southpaw]

Anesthesiology perspective - I use it occasionally in the PACU for nausea and also frequently on OB for c-sections when expectant Moms get nauseous post-spinal placement (hypotension related). It helps more often than not. Sometimes the smell is too strong and patients ask me to take it away. All of these patients have already received IV anti-emetics. I typically already have the patient wearing a nasal cannula so I slip an alcohol pad between the two nasal prongs.