Droperidol has comparable clinical efficacy against both nausea and vomiting.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Droperidol is commonly noted to be more effective at preventing postoperative nausea (PON) than vomiting (POV) and it is assumed to have a short duration of action. This may be relevant for clinical decisions, especially for designing multiple-drug antiemetic regimens.

METHODS:

We conducted a post hoc analysis of a large multicentre trial. Within this trial, 1734 patients underwent inhalation anaesthesia and were randomly stratified to receive several antiemetic interventions according to a factorial design, one of which was droperidol 1.25 mg vs placebo. We considered differences to be significant when: (i) point estimates of one outcome are not within the limits of the confidence interval (CI) of the other outcome; and (ii) differences in risk ratio (also known as relative risks, RR) are at least 20%.

RESULTS:

Over 24 h, nausea was reduced from 42.9% in the control to 32.0% in the droperidol group, corresponding to a relative risk (RR) of 0.75 (95% CI from 0.66 to 0.84). Vomiting was reduced from 15.6% to 11.8%, and therefore associated with a similar RR of 0.76 (0.59-0.96). In the early postoperative period (0-2 h), droperidol prevented nausea and vomiting similarly, with an RR of 0.57 (0.46-0.69) for nausea and 0.56 (0.37-0.85) for vomiting. In the late postoperative period (2-24 h), the RR was again similar with 0.83 (0.72-0.96) for nausea compared with 0.89 (0.66-1.18) for vomiting but significantly less compared with the early postoperative period.

CONCLUSIONS:

We conclude that droperidol prevents PON and POV equally well, yet its duration of action is short-lived.

• Authors: C C Apfel, O S Cakmakkaya, G Frings, P Kranke, A Malhotra, A Stader, A Turan, A Biedler, K Kolodzie
• Journal: British journal of anaesthesia (Br J Anaesth) Vol. 103 Issue 3 Pg. 359-63 (Sep 2009) ISSN: 1471-6771 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 19605409 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Multicenter Study, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antiemetics
• Ondansetron
• Dexamethasone
• Droperidol

Topics

• Adult
• Anesthesia, Inhalation
• Antiemetics (therapeutic use)
• Dexamethasone (therapeutic use)
• Droperidol (therapeutic use)
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Ondansetron (therapeutic use)
• Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting (prevention & control)
• Treatment Outcome