Background: Use of smoke-less tobacco (SLT) is very common in South and South-East Asian countries. It is significantly associated with various types of cancers. The objectives of this study were to assess the proportion of hospital staff that use SLT, and to identify the factors associated with its use and their practices. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 560 staff of two tertiary care hospitals were interviewed in the year 2009. Nurses, ward boys and technicians were counted as a paramedic staff while drivers, peons, security guards and housekeeping staff were labeled as non-paramedic staff. SLT use was considered as usage of any of the following: betel quid (paan) with or without tobacco, betel nuts with or without tobacco (gutkha) and snuff (naswar). Results: About half (48.6%) of the hospital staff were using at least one type of SLT. Factors found to be statistically significant with SLT were being a male (OR=2.5; 95% CI=1.8-3.7); having no/fewer years of education (OR=1.7; 95% CI=1.2-2.4) and working as non-paramedic staff (OR=2.6; 95% CI=1.8-3.8). Majority of SLT users were using it on regular basis, for > 5 years and keeping the tobacco products in the oral cavity for >30 minutes. About half of the users started due to peer pressure and had tried to quit this habit but failed. Conclusion: In this study, about half of the study participants were using SLT in different forms. We suggest educational and behavioral interventions for control of SLT usage.

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of Metoclopramide versus Dexamethasone for prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting during general anesthesia. Study Design:This is a Randomized control trial (RCT) study. Setting: Study carried out at Department of Anaesthesiology, Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Pain Management, Clinic, Dow University of Health Sciences and  Dr. Ruth Pfau  Hospital Karachi, from December 2018 to June 2019. Materials and Methods:110 patients undergoing elective surgeries, who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent were included in the study. They were randomly assigned to either group M or group D, with 55 patients in each group. All patients were then administered either intravenous dexamethasone (8mg) in group D or intravenous metoclopramide (10mg) in group M at the time of induction of anesthesia. The main outcome measure was postoperative nausea and vomiting, at the end of 6th hour postoperatively. The SPSS version 21 was applied to the data. Results: Majority of the patients 66 (60%) were of age 35 years or less. Mean age of the patients was 35.09±11.55 years. There were more females than males, with male to female ratio being 1:1.03. Overall, in patients receiving metoclopramide, 12(21.8%)  had postoperative nausea and vomiting, while in patients who received dexamethasone, only 4 (7.3%) patients had post-operative nausea and vomiting. When comparing two groups, there was statistically significant (p= 0.02) reduced postoperative nausea/vomiting among those patients who had received intravenous dexamethasone. Conclusion: Intravenous dexamethasone is more effective than Metoclopramide in preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting in patients during general anesthesia.