Stephen Freedman led a nationwide research to information at house therapy after youngsters are discharged from emergency for frequent vomiting. Credit score: Leah Hennel, Alberta Well being Companies
Most kids in search of emergency division (ED) care attributable to vomiting are discharged house. Though they normally really feel higher once they go away the ED, the vomiting recurs in almost one-third of youngsters.
Dr. Stephen Freedman, MD, a pediatric ED doctor, led a nationwide research to judge if sending youngsters who current for care with frequent vomiting from an acute intestinal an infection are higher off when supplied with an anti-vomiting treatment to take, as wanted, at house.
“When children are really sick, it’s important to get them to hospital to be seen by a medical professional and it’s also important to ensure that once they are able to go home, that they continue to recover,” says Freedman, a professor on the Cumming Faculty of Drugs and lead investigator of the research.
“Gastroenteritis results in over two million visits by children to emergency departments and over 50,000 hospitalizations each year in North America.”
Freedman and his crew performed a double-blind randomized medical trial in six pediatric hospitals in Canada. They enrolled greater than 1,000 youngsters aged six months to 18 years and located that ondansetron, a well-tolerated and protected anti-nausea drug, can stop vomiting when given at house.
Within the research, revealed in The New England Journal of Drugs, youngsters administered ondansetron have been much less prone to have moderate-to-severe signs after ED discharge.
“In an earlier study, we found that ondansetron works well to stop vomiting and reduces the need for intravenous fluids administration when given as a single dose in the ED. However, some kids experience a recurrence of vomiting at home. Now we know that by providing a small number of doses to be taken at home, it can benefit those with ongoing symptoms,” says Freedman.
Regardless of how frequent acute gastroenteritis is in youngsters, Freedman says there was an ongoing debate as to the perfect therapy strategy following ED discharge. He provides that the outcomes from this definitive trial ought to lastly handle this query.
“This study was designed to determine the right approach. We wanted to ensure we do not unnecessarily provide a medication with no clinical advantages. On the other hand, if it is beneficial, we wanted to quantify the benefits so that health care teams know how many doses to provide and which patients it will help. This study offers evidence that children with frequent and recent vomiting from an intestinal infection should be provided with two doses of ondansetron at the time of ED discharge,” says Freedman.
The research concerned establishments throughout the Pediatric Emergency Analysis Canada (PERC) community. Community co-founder, and research co-author, Dr. Terry P. Klassen, MD, says it demonstrates the effectiveness and collaboration of Canadian researchers and exhibits the worth of funding in medical trials in Canada.
“In areas like pediatric emergency medicine, we need to collaborate nationally to conduct clinical trials that provide the evidence-based solutions needed to inform care to ensure that every child has an optimal outcome,” says Klassen, pediatric emergency doctor and professor on the College of Saskatchewan.
The research’s findings have been included in nationwide suggestions distributed to emergency division well being care suppliers revealed by Translating Emergency Information for Children (TREKK).
“The next step is to determine, among the broad group of children who were eligible to participate in this study, if there is a sub-group of children most likely to benefit. This will enable clinicians to ensure the medicine is provided appropriately to those patients for whom it will be most effective,” says Freedman.
Extra data:
Stephen B. Freedman et al, Multidose Ondansetron after Emergency Visits in Kids with Gastroenteritis, New England Journal of Drugs (2025). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2503596
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College of Calgary
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Analysis helps youngsters with acute gastroenteritis get well at house (2025, July 18)
retrieved 18 July 2025
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