Incidence and severity of nausea and vomiting in a group of maintenance hemodialysis patients

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a rising problem across the world, including Iran. Most of the patients will require hemodialysis for survival. Despite the great progress has been made in the hemodialysis equipment, but it is still associated with complications. Nausea and vomiting are common complication of during hemodialysis, which leads to unpleasant feeling in patients. Objectives: This study aimed to determine incidence and severity of nausea and vomiting in a group of maintenance hemodialysis patients. Patients and Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical study on 60 hemodialysis patients of dialysis wards in Semnan University of Medical Sciences. Verbal Numeric Rating Scale (VNRS) and Korttila vomiting severity scale were used to measure the severity of nausea and vomiting during hemodialysis respectively. Results: In this study, the incidence of nausea and vomiting during hemodialysis were 28.3% and 11.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, the mean severity of nausea was 1.15 and the mean rank of vomiting was 2.08. Conclusion: The results of the study showed a relatively high incidence of nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing hemodialysis, hence nurses must consider these problems by suitable measures to prevent the occurrence of the these unpleasant feelings in the patients during hemodialysis.