ADHERENCE TO ANTIEMESIS GUIDELINES IN A DAY CARE CHEMOTHERAPY UNIT: EXPERIENCE FROM A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Arun Philip; Sahil Bambroo; Pavithran Keechilat

Volume : IX, Issue : XII, December - 2019

ADHERENCE TO ANTIEMESIS GUIDELINES IN A DAY CARE CHEMOTHERAPY UNIT: EXPERIENCE FROM A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE

Arun Philip, Sahil Bambroo, Pavithran Keechilat

Abstract :

Among the side effects of cancer therapy, chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is the most distressing and it affects the quality of life of patients and the treatment outcome. The study was undertaken to audit the adherence to anti–emesis guidelines in the day care chemotherapy unit at our centre. A vast majority of our chemotherapies (85%) were high emetic risk regimes. We found that the adherence to anti–emesis guideline was 57%. Among the cases of non adherence, a majority were over–treated (57%). Looking into the reasons of non adherence, we feel the need to evolve our own population based guidelines. Improving public awareness about the toxicities of chemotherapy will help in dispelling unwanted fear of toxicity. Improving awareness about anti–emetic guidelines among clinicians also will play a major role in improving adherence to guidelines and thus improving outcome of therapy.