A retrospective review of treatment patterns of antiemetic agents for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting:

Objectives:To evaluate the treatment pattern of antiemetic agents used for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia.Methods:Over a period of 7 weeks, all new chemotherapy order sheets were collected and evaluated for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting management. We compared each antiemetic regimen used for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting prophylaxis with three international antiemetic guidelines by the following organizations: the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for the clinician.Results:A total of 152 cancer patients were included in the study, for whom 289 chemotherapy physician orders included antiemetic regimens. Approximately 17.3% of the chemotherapy protocols had total minimal emetogenicity risk, 22.5% had low risk, 37.02% had moderate risk, and 23.18% had high risk. For acute emesis, 27.57% of the antiemetic regimens followed at lea...