Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Ondansetron
Summary
Ondansetron, sold under the brand name Zofran among others, is a medication used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery. It is also effective for treating gastroenteritis. It can be given orally (by mouth), intramuscularly (injection into a muscle), or intravenously (injection into a vein).
Common side effects include diarrhea, constipation, headache, sleepiness, and itchiness. Serious side effects include QT prolongation and severe allergic reaction. It appears to be safe during pregnancy but has not been well studied in this group. It is a serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonist. It does not have any effect on dopamine receptors or muscarinic receptors.
Ondansetron was patented in 1984 and approved for medical use in 1990. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 83rd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 8 million prescriptions.
Ondansetron is indicated for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Ondansetron is used off-label to treat morning sickness and hyperemesis gravidarum of pregnancy. It is typically used after other antinausea drugs have failed.
There appears to be a low risk of harm to the baby with use during pregnancy, though there may be an increase in heart problems among the babies.
Ondansetron is one of several antiemetic drugs used during the vomiting phase of cyclic vomiting syndrome.
Trials in emergency department settings support the use of ondansetron to reduce vomiting associated with gastroenteritis and dehydration. A retrospective review found it was used commonly for this purpose, being administered in over 58% of cases. Its use reduced hospital admissions, but was also associated with higher rates of return visits to the emergency department. Furthermore, people who had initially received ondansetron were more likely to be admitted on the return visit than people who had not received the drug.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.