Nausea doxapram

The adverse reactions associated with the administration of doxapram include excessive CNS stimulation, symptoms of which may include headache, dizziness, apprehension, disorientation, and hyperactivity. Other adverse reactions include nausea, vomiting, cough,... 

Nausea and vomiting may occur with the administration of an analeptic therefore, the nurse should keep a suction machine nearby should vomiting occur. Urinary retention may be seen with the administration of doxapram therefore, the nurse measures intake and output and notifies the primary health care provider if the patient is unable to void or the bladder appears distended on palpation. 

In seven patients treated with doxapram after anesthesia, the adverse effects were not serious and comprised excessive coughing, weeping, muscle tremor, nausea, and hysterical reactions to dreams. However, sweating, excessive salivation, and vomiting were noted in the control patients, and the authors concluded that recovery was smoother with doxapram. 

There was a very high incidence of adverse reactions, such as hot flushes, sweating, hyperventilation, tremor, nausea, and vertigo, in postoperative analgesia combined with doxapram 1 mg/kg (2). 

Even allowing for the possibility that all cases of nausea were due to the analgesic alone there was still a 72% incidence of complaints in the doxapram group while only 15% of patients in the control group had subjective complaints (nausea and sweating). In the discussion (10 ) it was stressed that the failure to mention side effects in their 2 studies was because none could definitely be ascribed to doxapram. 

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