Clinical Use of the Pictorial Baxter Retching Faces Scale for the Measurement of Postoperative Nausea in Children

What is it about?

Nausea after surgery is not measured in children and treatment is limited to those with vomiting. The pictorial Baxter Retching Faces (BARF) scale is a validated way to measure nausea in children but we do not know the age limitations where it is reliable, or its usefulness of this scale in the clinical setting. We also do not know at which score level a child will feel the need nausea treatment. This study established that nausea occurs more often than vomiting after anesthesia in children. The pictorial BARF scale is easy to use in the clinical setting in children aged 6 years or more, and that they feel a need for treatment if the score is more than 4. The minimum change in the BARF score that a child can feel a difference in nausea is 1 face on the BARF scale and the score is relaible when repeated.

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