ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Rate of metoclopramide infusion affects the severity and incidence of akathisia

I Parlak¹, R Atilla¹, M Cicek¹, M Parlak², B Erdur¹, M Guryay¹, M Sever¹, S Karaduman¹

¹ Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey
² Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Department of Anesthesiology, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr R Atilla
Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Inciralti 35340, Izmir, Turkey; ridvan.atilla{at}deu.edu.tr

Objective: To investigate the effect of the rate of metoclopramide infusion on akathisia incidence, severity, onset of symptoms, and duration in patients with headache, and/or nausea/vomiting in the emergency department (ED) setting.

Methods: Prospective, double blind, randomised clinical study comparing two rates of intravenous infusion of metoclopramide over a period of six months at a tertiary university hospital ED.

Results: A total of 300 patients presented to the ED met the inclusion criteria: 151 (50.3%) with nausea/vomiting, 108 (36%) with headache, and 41 (13.7%) with headache and nausea/vomiting. Of these, 154 patients (51.3%) were given 10 mg metoclopramide as a slow intravenous infusion over 15 minutes plus placebo (SIG group) and 146 patients were given 10 mg metoclopramide intravenous bolus infusion over two minutes plus placebo (BIG group). Nine of the 154 patients in the SIG group (5.8%) had akathisia compared with 36/146 patients (24.7%) in the BIG group (p<0.001, OR 5.273, 95% CI 2.43 to 11.403). Severe akathisia were observed in 13/45 (28.8%). The incidence of severe akathisia was significantly higher in the BIG group (30.5%; 11/36) than in the SIG group (22.2%; 2/9), p = 0.009. Metoclopramide successfully relieved the presenting symptom(s) of 137/146 (90.8%) and 139/154 (90.2%) patients in the BIG and SIG groups, respectively.

Conclusions: This study suggests that slowing the rate of infusion of metoclopramide is an effective strategy for reducing the incidence of akathisia in patients with headache, and/or nausea/vomiting in ED.

Keywords: metoclopramide; akathisia

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Dickerson, R. N., Mitchell, J. N., Morgan, L. M., Maish, G. O. III, Croce, M. A., Minard, G., Brown, R. O. (2009). Disparate Response to Metoclopramide Therapy for Gastric Feeding Intolerance in Trauma Patients With and Without Traumatic Brain Injury. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr 33: 646-655 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Parlak, I., Erdur, B., Parlak, M., Ergin, A., Turkcuer, I., Tomruk, O., Ayrik, C., Ergin, N. (2007). Intravenous administration of metoclopramide by 2 min bolus vs 15 min infusion: does it affect the improvement of headache while reducing the side effects?. Postgrad. Med. J. 83: 664-668 [Abstract] [Full Text]