TEAS Combined With Triple Antiemetic Drugs to Prevent PONV in High-Risk Patients

780 female patients, aged between 18 to 65 y, who are scheduled for elective laparoscopic surgery requiring general anesthesia, will be randomly allocated to acustimulation group (Group TEAS), or the control group. In Group TEAS, a surface electrode will be applied to the P6 and L14 acupoint 30 min before induction. An operator will set electric stimulating current at 1mA with frequency at 2 Hz, and gradually increased the current intensity to a little below discomfort threshold. The stimulation will be maintained until the patient is discharged from the operation. In the control group the same protocol was applied for percutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation, initiated before anesthesia induction with the minimum perceptible current (MPC) and terminated after 1 minute. A standardized anesthetic protocol will be followed. In all groups, dexamethasone 5mg and palonosetron 0.25mg i.v. will be given after induction, and droperidol 1.25 mg i.v. will be given during the abdominal closure. After surgery, metoclopramide 10mg i.v. will be administered as a rescue therapy to any patient who experiences an episode of moderate or severe nausea, an episode of vomiting, and requests rescue medication. The patients shall be unaware of the group assignments. An anesthesiologist, who are trained for the study and blinded to the randomization, will collect the data.