Article Text

Download PDFPDF
JRCALC prize for Research most likely to affect practice was awarded to Gareth Campbell North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust
02 Incidence of peri-opiate nausea and vomiting in the pre-hospital setting: an intermediate analysis
  1. Gareth Campbell1,
  2. Malcolm Woollard2,
  3. Sally McLure3,
  4. Jay Duckett3,
  5. Robert Newcombe4,
  6. Tom Clarke5
  1. 1North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne UK
  2. 2Coventry University, Coventry UK
  3. 3North East Ambulance Service, Newcastle upon Tyne UK
  4. 4Cardiff University, Cardiff UK
  5. 5Newcastle City Hospital, Newcastle UK

Abstract

Background Intravenous morphine is the preferred drug for the treatment of moderate to severe pain by paramedics. Nausea and vomiting are believed to be frequent side-effects and routine co-administration of metoclopramide is common. In the absence of pre-hospital data to support this practice, we sought to determine the incidence of peri-opiate nausea and vomiting in an ambulance service which does not administer anti-emetics.

Methods This prospective observational study is currently assessing the incidence of emesis in 400 patients attended by the North East Ambulance Service, aged above 17 years and receiving morphine, using a patient-scored Nausea and Vomiting Score (NVS: 0=no nausea or vomiting, 1=slight nausea, 2=moderate nausea, 3=severe nausea, 4=vomited once, 5=vomited twice or more).

Results To date 145 patients have been recruited. Median NVS before morphine was 0 (range 0 to 6, inter-quartile range (IQR) 0 to 1): 54/141 (38%) of patients had some degree of nausea or vomiting. Median NVS on hospital arrival (after morphine) was 0 (range of 0 to 6, IQR 0 to 1): 54/130 (42%) patients had some degree of nausea or vomiting. The differences pre- vs. post-morphine in median NVS (p=0.98) and proportion of patients suffering nausea and vomiting are not statistically significant (p=0.98 and p=0.54 respectively). There were no significant correlations between pre-morphine pain score and pre-morphine NVS; post-morphine pain score and post-morphine NVS; pre-morphine NVS and total morphine dose; and post-morphine NVS and total morphine dose (Spearman's rank correlation 0.09, p=0.274; 0.07, p=0.44; 0.10, p=0.25; and 0.10, p=0.24 respectively).

Conclusion and recommendations To date this study has found no evidence that pre-hospital administration of morphine is associated with an increased incidence or severity of nausea and vomiting and therefore does not appear to support the routine co-administration of metoclopramide.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.