薑對化學治療引起噁心嘔吐之成效

The Effect of Ginger on Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting

噁心嘔吐是化學治療中常見且困難處理的副作用，即使已接受正規的止吐藥物，病人仍經歷不同程度噁心嘔吐的情形。薑是民間傳統的止吐方法之一，對化學治療引起之噁心嘔吐效果尚不明確，本文目的即在透過系統文獻回顧方式，探討薑對化學治療引起之噁心嘔吐的效果。從1990年到2010年，從67篇相關文獻中篩選出4篇臨床隨機試驗研究，研究結果呈現薑在止吐劑使用狀況下，對化學治療引起噁心嘔吐的效果並不一致，在臨床實務建議上，雖然現有的研究尚未明確，但可能有輔助的效果，且無止吐藥的常見副作用。因此，在適當解釋使用成效及個案同意下，可建議個案嘗試使用，並隨時監測。另外，現有的研究仍面臨研究樣本數較少、無法雙盲，以及薑的劑量和劑型設計等等限制，未來研究必須能突破這些障礙，以提供作為臨床照護實務之實證依據。

Nausea and vomiting is the most experienced side effect of chemotherapy that clinical nurses are difficult to deal with. Even having received the regular antiemetic drugs, the patients experienced some degree of nausea and vomiting. Ginger is one of the traditional aniemetics. However, antiemetic effect on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting has not been recognized. The purpose of this review was to explore the effect of ginger for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting through systemic literature review. There were four controlled trial selected from 67 related articles from 1990 to 2010. The result showed that the effect of ginger was not consistent among trials. Although the exiting research results have not yet clear, ginger may have additional help and did not cause any side effects as modern antiemetic drug. For clinical recommendation, we suggest that the conservative effect of ginger should be carefully explained and any effects and side effects should be tracked vigorously. In addition, limitations of current studies included small sample size, lack of double-blind design, and inconsistent dosage of ginger. Future study should overcome these obstacles in order to serve as framework of evidenced-based practice and to improve the quality of clinical care.