Nausea and vomiting: causes and treatment

We discuss the significance of nausea and vomiting and consider the major causes and mechanisms of these phenomena. It is emphasized that the act of vomiting is highly organized process involving both somatic and autonomic nervous system under the control of two functionally different structures located in the medulla oblongata: the vomiting center and chemoreceptor trigger zone. Principles of differential diagnosis of different variants of vomiting are presented. The basic approaches to the treatment of nausea and vomiting are discussed, and we describe the main types of antiemetics (neuroleptics, serotonin receptor antagonists, dopamine receptor antagonists, cholinolytics, local anesthetics, spasmolytics, hydrocorticosteroids).

nausea, vomiting, emetic center, chemoreceptor trigger zone, antiemetics