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Oral ginger is an effective antiemetic in children with gastroenteritis
Clinical Question
Does ginger reduce vomiting in children with acute gastroenteritis?
Bottom line
Ginger, in liquid form, stopped vomiting in children who presented with acute gastroenteritis. This rate of effectiveness is similar to emergency department administration of ondansetron (Zofran). The liquid form of ginger may be difficult to find — ginger ale soft drinks contain little to no ginger — and I would be concerned about using the more common ginger lozenge in young children. But given its low cost and lack of side effects, a liquid form of ginger (if you can find it) may be a good option for at-home management of mild-to-moderate acute gastroenteritis in children and allow them to keep oral rehydration solutions down. 1b
Reference
Study design: Randomized controlled trial (double-blinded)
Funding: Industry + foundation
Setting: Outpatient (any)
Synopsis
Investigators enrolled children 1 to 10 years old (average 5.5 years) who presented to pediatricians with acute gastroenteritis, symptom duration of less than 12 hours, and an average of 4 vomiting episodes within the previous 4 hours. The children had mild to moderate dehydration. The 150 children were randomized, using concealed allocation, to receive 10 mg ginger or placebo (both in liquid form, matched to color and taste) at the time of evaluation and every 8 hours if vomiting continued. All children also received an oral rehydration solution 30 minutes after the first dose. Using per-protocol analysis (i.e., only evaluating children who received the first dose), the ginger prevented further vomiting over the subsequent 8 hours in 36% of children as compared with 14% of children who received the placebo (P = .002; number needed to treat = 5; 95% CI 3 - 14). Results were similar when analyzed by intention to treat. More than 24 hours after the first dose, 86% of children who received the placebo experienced at least one episode of vomiting as compared with 64% of children who received ginger. There were no side effects in either group.
Reviewer
Allen F. Shaughnessy, PharmD, MMedEd
Professor of Family Medicine
Tufts University
Boston, MA
Comments
Liquid form of Ginger
Ginger has been used in Chinese and Indian medicine for thousand of years. Liquid form of ginger can be obtained by cutting pieces of ginger and soak them in hot water for 5 min and should be ready to use
Liquid ginger for vomiting
Interesting. The reviewer states that the "rate of effectiveness is similar to emergency department administration of ondansetron (Zofran). " The trial did not compare ondansetron to ginger so this conclusion is not warranted. It may be that there are separate non "head to head" studies indicating some sort of equivalent effectiveness but one would have to review these carefully to ensure similar poputations were studied. Even then an semblance of equivalence could only be used as hypothesis generating to justify a direct "on-inferior" trial in the future.
Oral ginger is an effective antiemetic in children with gast
it would be nice to have more details on how the ginger was obtained and prepared ... in its current form, the information presented is not particularly useful.
interesting. Ginger is safe…
interesting. Ginger is safe, and effective.