Once Daily Metronidazole for Perforated Appendicitis
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2022-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The objective of this study is to determine whether administering once-daily doses of
metronidazole, an intravenous (IV) antibiotic used to prevent infection in perforated
appendicitis, is as effective in children as delivering it in the standard method of once
every eight hours. Reducing the frequency of administration has the potential of decreasing
personnel time and healthcare cost and increasing the lifespan of the IV line.
To determine the effectiveness once-daily administration, a randomized controlled trial (RCT)
will be conducted to compare outcomes between the two treatment schedules. We will recruit
100 patients (50 per treatment) aged 5-18 being surgically treated for perforated
appendicitis at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, who will be randomly assigned to
one of the two treatment schedules. To compare the efficacy of the treatments, outcomes such
as duration of hospital stay and theoretical cost will be measured and analyzed using
statistical tests.