Fosaprepitant for the Treatment of Refractory Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting.

Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is a debilitating condition that occurs in approximately 30% of patients undergoing general anesthesia. Premedication with 5-HT3 receptor antagonists and glucocorticoids is effective in clinical practice; however, 10% to 20% of patients still develop PONV. Currently, little is known about the treatment of refractory PONV.

Adverse events associated with procedural sedation in pediatric patients in the emergency department.

Purpose: To determine the agents used by emergency medicine (EM) physicians in pediatric procedural sedation and the associated adverse events (AEs) and to provide recommendations for optimizing drug therapy in pediatric patients.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study at Stanford Hospital's pediatric emergency department (ED) from April 2007 to April 2008 to determine the medications most frequently used in pediatric procedural sedation as well as their effectiveness and AEs. Patients, 18 years old or younger, who required procedural sedation in the pediatric ED were eligible for the study.

Adverse-drug-event data provided by pharmaceutical companies.

Purpose: Pharmaceutical company drug information center (PCDIC) responses to queries about adverse drug events (ADEs) were studied to determine whether PCDICs search sources other than the prescribing information on the package insert (PI) and whether the PCDICs' approach differs according to whether an ADE is listed in the PI (labeled) or not (unlabeled).

Methods: Companies were selected from a list of PCDICs in the Physicians' Desk Reference. One oral or injectable prescription drug from each company was selected.