Droperidol for acute migraine headache

The use of intramuscular droperidol to treat acute migraine headache has no t been previously reported in the emergency medicine literature, It is a pr omising therapy for migraine, The authors performed a pilot review of all p atients receiving droperidol for migraine in our emergency depart ment (ED) to evaluate its efficacy. We used a retrospective case series, in a suburb an ED with an annual patient census of 48,000, All patients with a discharg e diagnosis of migraine headache who were treated with IM droperidol during a consecutive 5-month period in our ED were identified. All patients recei ved droperidol 2.5 mg intramuscular, As per ED protocol, their clinical pro gress was closely followed and documented at 30 minutes after drug administ ration (t30), Demographic and clinical variables were recorded on a standar dized, closed question, data collection instrument. The primary outcome mea surement was relief of symptoms at t30 to the point that the patient felt w ell enough to go home without further ED intervention (symptomatic relief). Thirty seven patients were treated (84% female), with an ED diagnosis of a cute migraine with droperidol during the study period, The mean age was 36 +/- 12 years. Analgesics had been used within 24 hours before ED presentati on by 62% of patients, At t30, 30 (81%) patients had symptomatic relief, 2 (5%) felt partial relief but required rescue medication, and 5 (14%) had no relief of symptoms. Drowsiness (14%) and mild akathisia (8%) were the only adverse reactions observed following drug administration, Droperidol 2.5 m g intramuscular may be a safe and effective therapy for the ED management o f acute migraine headache, Randomized, controlled trials are warranted to f urther validate the findings of this preliminary study. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.