Economic advantage to pediatric ondansetron administration in emergency departments

(Press-News.org) In research published this week in PLoS Medicine, Stephen Freedman (University of Toronto) and colleagues performed a cost analysis of the emergency department administration of oral ondansetron to children with dehydration and vomiting secondary to gastroenteritis and found that this treatment could provide substantial economic, as well as clinical, benefit.

The researchers analyzed the costs of the administration of oral ondansetron in both the US and Canada, if routinely given to children with gastroenteritis-induced vomiting and dehydration in the emergency department setting and found that in the US and Canada the use of ondansetraon would provide substantial reductions in financial costs. hospitalizations and intravenous insertions.

They conclude that in countries where intravenous rehydration is often employed, the emergency department administration of oral ondansetron to children with dehydration and vomiting secondary to gastroenteritis is likely to be valuable. However, in less developed countries the emphasis for treatment of children with dehydration and vomiting should remain on oral rehydration therapy alone.

INFORMATION: Funding: No direct funding was received for this study. The authors were personally salaried by their institutions during the period of writing though no specific salary was set aside or given for the writing of this paper. No funding bodies had any role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: All authors declare that SF, MS, KC have no relationships with GlaxoSmithKline that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; their spouses, partners, or children have no financial relationships that may be relevant to the submitted work; and SF, MS, KC have no nonfinancial interests that may be relevant to the submitted work. SBF does acknowledge that he received research support from GlaxoSmithKline in 2003 but has not had any relationship with them since. He currently receives research support from Institut Rosell Lallemand. KJC previously received research support from GlaxoSmithKline (2000�) but has not had any relationship with them since.

Citation: Freedman SB, Steiner MJ, Chan KJ (2010) Oral Ondansetron Administration in Emergency Departments to Children with Gastroenteritis: An Economic Analysis. PLoS Med 7(10): e1000350. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000350

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CONTACT:

Stephen Freedman
University of Toronto
Paediatrics
The Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Avenue
Toronto, ON M5G 1X8
Canada
416-813-7654 ext 2382
stephen.freedman@sickkids.ca