Background: Ondansetron is often used in the emergency department (ED) to promote oral rehydration in children with acute gastroenteritis (AGE), yet medication solutions administered orally may be poorly tolerated in this population.
Objectives: We compared the tolerability of ondansetron oral dissolve tab (ODT) to oral solution (OS) in children presenting to the ED with AGE.
Methods: Using alternate-day controlled clinical trial design, children aged 3 months to 10 years received either ondansetron ODT or OS. Our primary outcome was early vomiting (within 15 min of drug administration). The secondary outcome was intravenous (i.v.) fluid administration.
Results: There were 462/534 eligible children who met study criteria. Demographics, severity, and duration of illness were similar between groups. Using intention-to-treat analysis, early vomiting occurred in 8/209 ODT vs. 19/253 OS children (3.8% vs. 7.5%; odds ratio [OR] 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.18-1.21). Using as-treated analysis, 6/222 (2.7%) children receiving ODT experienced early vomiting, compared with 21/221 (9.5%) of the OS group (OR 0.26; 95% CI 0.09-0.70). The proportion of children discharged without i.v. fluids was not different (intention-to-treat: ODT = 91.4% (191/209), OS = 94.1% (238/253), OR 1.49, 95% CI 0.69-3.28; as-treated: ODT = 92.3% (205/222), OS = 93.2% (206/221), OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.40-1.93).
Conclusions: Using a conservative intention-to-treat analysis, we found that children presenting to an ED with AGE did not have statistically less early vomiting with ondansetron ODT as compared with OS. However, our as-treated analysis demonstrates that children receiving ondansetron ODT experienced early vomiting approximately one-third as often as those receiving OS. The rate of i.v. fluid administration was no different between groups regardless of the type of analysis used.
Keywords: child; emergency department; gastroenteritis; ondansetron.
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