Clinical Use of the Pictorial Baxter Retching Faces Scale for the Measurement of Postoperative Nausea in Children.
Acronym perfection in practice. The BARF scale is a newer paediatric PONV scale, and this study shows consistent reliability of the scale in children > 6 yrs, with excellent predictive ability. Of particular importance in paediatrics, they highlight that clinically significant nausea occurs frequently in children post operatively, but unless the child actually vomits, treatment for the nausea is much less likely. More thorough assessment of patient reported nausea in paediatrics may be made easier with a tool such as the BARF scale, and reminds us that just because our patients haven’t vomited, doesn’t mean they aren’t suffering unpleasant nausea.
Reviewed by: Dr Justin Skowno
