Background and Objective: A common complication after general anesthesia is nausea and vomiting followed by different problems such as spasm, hypoxia and pulmonary aspiration. This complication is more common in patients with full stomach, Eye injury, head trauma, cesarean and laparoscopy. Propofol and metoclopramide are two common drugs to prevent nausea and vomiting after operation. On the other hand adding dexamethasone to the above drug, has an important effect on decreasing nausea and vomiting. In this study, the effect propofol and metoclopramide associated with dexamethasone on nausea and vomiting after operation was investigated.

Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study, 100 patients with ASA I, II classes, aged 16-60 years with selective orthopedic surgery randomly have divided into two groups. In group one, 48 patients received metoclopramide (10mg) with dexamethasone (8mg) and in group two, 52 patients received propofol (20mg) with dexamethasone (8mg), five minutes before the end of operation. Prevalence of nausea and vomiting in both groups was considered after 4 hours and results were analyzed by Chi-Square, t-student and Fisher exact tests.

Results: The rate of nausea in group 1 and 2 was 35.4% and 11.5% respectivly (P<0.05). The rate of vomiting was 27.7% and 7.7% in group 1 and 2 respectivly (P<0.05).

Conclusion: This study showed that the antiemetic effect of propofol with dexamethasone is more effective to prevent nausea and vomiting than metoclopromide with dexamethasone.