Emergency Medical Minute

Contributor: Aaron Lessen MD Educational Pearls: A recent randomized controlled trial compared ondansetron 8 mg IV with droperidol 2.5 mg IV for the treatment of nausea & vomiting in the emergency department.  Overall, droperidol and ondansetron had similar primary outcomes in acute nausea control  Symptom improvement in 93% of patients receiving droperidol vs. 87% receiving ondansetron (P = 0.362) Secondary measures were, however, statistically significantly different between groups Patients needed fewer rescue/additional antiemetics in the droperidol group (16%) compared with the ondansetron group (37%); p = 0.016 Similarly, more patients in the droperidol group reported they achieved the desired effect of the medication (85% vs. 63%; p = 0.006) Patients receiving droperidol did experience increased drowsiness 40% in the droperidol group vs. 11% in the ondansetron group The trial did not assess the length of stay in the ED after administering medications, which is a potential ave