Comparison of parenteral treatments of acute primary headache in a large academic emergency department cohort. Cephalalgia McCarthy, L. H., Cowan, R. P. 2015; 35 (9): 807-815

Abstract

The objective of this article is to compare acute primary headache patient outcomes in those initially treated with parenteral opiates or non-opiate recommended headache medications in a large academic medical emergency department (ED).Many acute primary headache patients are not diagnosed with a specific headache type and are treated with opiates and nonspecific pain medications in the ED setting. This is inconsistent with multiple expert recommendations.Electronic charts were reviewed from 574 consecutive patients who visited the ED for acute primary headache (identified by chief complaint and ICD9 codes) and were treated with parenteral medications.Non-opiate recommended headache medications were given first line to 52.6% and opiates to 22.8% of all participants. Patients given opiates first had significantly longer length of stays (median 5.0 vs. 3.9 hours, p?

View details for DOI 10.1177/0333102414557703

View details for PubMedID 25366551

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4417651