Gum rolled out in hospitals as latest treatment to help patients recover from surgery

PATIENTS feeling ill after surgery will be handed this sweet treat in a major international trial to determine if it could become Melbourne’s latest medical marvel.

CHEWING gum has become the latest Melbourne breakthrough being rolled out to patients in hospitals near and far.

From this week patients across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong are being given a stick of gum after waking from operations under a large Royal Melbourne Hospital trial to determine if they can chew their debilitating post-surgery nausea away.

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Patient Leeanne Whitfield was given chewing gum after surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital as part of a medical trial to determine if it can help them overcome the nausea many experience after an operation. Associate Nurse Unit Manager Christie Golding looks on. Picture: Tony Gough

About a third of surgical patients, particularly women, suffer severe nausea and vomiting in the hours and days following procedures that cannot always be eased with drugs.

However, a simple and cheap stick of peppermint gum chewed for about 10 minutes is being found to be more effective than anti-nausea drugs in giving patients a better recovery.

After an initial trial of 94 women at the RMH found chewing gum could overcome three out of four cases of post-surgery nausea.

But from this week the RMH’s Dr Jai Darvall​ will lead a much larger international study involving 1200 female patients at up to 30 hospitals to determine chewy’s suitability as a frontline option.

“It is a simple, ubiquitous treatment that doesn’t require a drip in the hand, is familiar to people all around the world, there are no storage concerns and as a result can be widely taken up by patients and health services alike,” Dr Darvall said.

“There is a small proportion of patients who have really crippling post-operative nausea and vomiting that can last for days.”

While nausea ranks among the most common and important complications of surgery for many patients, the highest risk is faced by females, those undergoing laparoscopic procedures, and those with a history of motion sickness.

In the latest study female patients undergoing laparoscopic abdominal and breast surgery who become nauseous after surgery will receive either a stick of Wrigley’s peppermint gum or anti-nausea drug ondansetro to determine which has the greatest affect.

It is thought the action of chewing is able to fight off nausea, rather than the taste or any ingredient in the gum itself.

Hours after her gall bladder was removed at RMH on Friday Leanne Whitfield X began feeling very unwell — and she was only too happy to become one of the first patients involved in the chewy trial.

“I felt right at that stage before being sick … it was very uncomfortable,” she said.

“They could have done anything to stop that feeling. Within an hour I was back to normal.”