Ondansetron versus Domperidone for the treatment of vomiting in acute gastroenteritis in children

The present study compared the efficacy of Ondansetron versus Domperidone for treating vomiting in acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children.

The study included 300 children of both genders aged below 12 years, experiencing three or more non-bilious, non-bloody vomiting episodes within 24 hours and with suggestive signs and symptoms of AGE. It equally randomized them into two groups and compared the efficacy of both drugs in terms of the need for 2nd dose within 15 minutes and cessation of vomiting at 6-hour and 24-hour follow-ups.

The study observed-

• Enrollment of 54.0% male children. 
• The mean age as 4.7±2.3 years of participants.
• 18.0% of children in the Ondansetron group required 2nd dose within 15 minutes, while 25.3% of children in the Domperidone group required the 2nd dose. 
• Cessation of vomiting at 6-hour intervals among 84.0% of children in the Ondansetron group in comparison to 78.7% in the Domperidone group. 
• 89.4% of children in the Ondansetron group had cessation of vomiting at 24 hours follow-up, while it was only in 80.6% of children in the Domperidone group.

This study regards Ondansetron as superior to Domperidone in having better efficacy aiming cessation of AGE-associated vomiting among children with mild to moderate dehydration.

Ahmad T, Zarafshan U, Sahar B. Comparison of Ondansetron versus Domperidone for treating vomiting in acute gastroenteritis in children at a resource-limited setting of South Punjab, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2022 Jul-Aug;38(6):1584-1588. doi: 10.12669/pjms.38.6.5532. PMID: 35991241; PMCID: PMC9378405.