Buscopan Versus Acetaminophen for Acute Abdominal Pain in Children

Hyoscine Hydrobromide (Buscopan) Versus Acetaminophen for Acute Abdominal Pain in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

There is ample evidence that pain in children is under recognized and under treated. This is especially true for acute abdominal pain, a common complaint in the paediatric emergency department. Clinicians often fear that analgesia will obscure the diagnosis of a potentially surgical condition. As a result, acute abdominal pain goes untreated in many children, as there is no standard of care. Hyoscine N-butylbromide (Buscopan) has been used successfully in adults and children for pain associated with urinary tract infections and kidney stones for over 60 years. However, no study has explored its usefulness in relieving acute abdominal pain in children. The objectives of this study are to investigate to what degree Buscopan is effective in relieving abdominal pain in children compared to acetaminophen.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Children; Abdomen, Acute
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Hyoscine butylbromide, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; Drug: Acetaminophen, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic

Detailed Description

Acute abdominal pain is a common complaint among paediatric patients visiting the emergency department (ED). Functional abdominal pain is not associated with any surgical or infectious etiology and is a frequent cause of painful abdominal cramps. Although functional abdominal pain is not life-threatening, it has significant impact on quality of life, functional outcomes, and patient satisfaction. It is a major source of school and work absence, loss of sleep, and extracurricular impairment. Despite this, analgesia has traditionally been withheld from patients with acute abdominal pain. The reasons behind this are likely two-fold. First, there is good evidence that clinicians fear that analgesia will mask signs of an underlying surgical pathology such as appendicitis. There is no current published literature that supports this practice. In fact, recent evidence has found that providing analgesia to children does not obscure signs of an acute surgical abdomen nor lead to clinically significant differences in negative outcomes. Second, there is no standard of care specifying the best analgesic options for treating abdominal pain in children in the post-codeine era. Although acetaminophen, ibuprofen, ketorolac, buscopan, and almagel/viscous lidocaine are frequently used agents in the ED, evidence for their benefit in children with functional abdominal pain is lacking. As a predictable result, most patients who present with abdominal pain fail to experience pain relief at discharge. The importance of providing optimal pain treatment is echoed by several national and international level policy statements. In addition to the World Health Organization (WHO)'s mandate that adequate pain treatment should be a fundamental human right, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has reaffirmed its position that adequate analgesia be provided for children. Furthermore, literature supports that providing analgesia improves patient care, caregiver satisfaction, and the therapeutic relationship. Antispasmodics are commonly used agents to treat abdominal cramping. Hyoscine butylbromide (HBB), trade name: Buscopan, is an anticholinergic agent that when orally administered, does not cross the blood brain barrier and has minimal systemic absorption. Therefore, it inhibits bowel motility without central nervous system or peripheral side effects. This antispasmodic has been used in clinical practice for over 60 years and specifically has been on the market since 1952 for the treatment of abdominal cramps. It is widely available around the world as both a prescription drug and an over the counter medication in many industrialized countries. It has also been used safely in neonates and children. As hyoscine butylbromide is barely absorbed, it is generally well tolerated. In the two large-scale studies of almost 1200 patients that compared HBB with placebo (and paracetamol), there was no significant difference in adverse events between the two groups, including those commonly associated with anticholinergics, such as nausea, constipation, dry mouth, blurred vision, tachycardia and urinary retention. Moreover, these adverse events not only occurred at a low incidence (less than or equal to 1.5%) but were also usually mild and self-limiting. In abdominal cramping and pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome, systematic reviews have had conflicting results with regards to analgesic efficacy, primarily because of small sample sizes and less rigorous designs. Muller-Krampe et al. conducted a prospective cohort of over 200 children with both acute and chronic abdominal spasms and compared the effectiveness of oral HBB 10 mg to a homeopathic preparation. HBB demonstrated comparative improvements to the homeopathic preparation with respect to pain, sleep disturbance, eating and drinking, and crying. Over 90% of patients in both groups reported good tolerability and there were no adverse events. Although HBB is used widely for abdominal pain in children and anecdotal evidence suggests it is efficacious, no paediatric clinical trial to date has explored its efficacy in the ED setting. The investigators hypothesize that HBB will have superior efficacy to the most commonly used agent, acetaminophen for acute abdominal pain in children. If HBB is found to be an effective analgesic in children with acute abdominal pain, it could provide a therapeutic option for a common, painful condition for which there is currently very little to offer.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 236
• Phase: Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • London, Ontario, Canada, N6A5W9
      • London Health Sciences Centre

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 4 years to 13 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All children aged 8-17 years presenting to the paediatric ED with:

  1. A chief complaint of colicky abdominal pain AND
  2. Pain score of at least 4/10 on the Faces Pain Scale - Revised AND
  3. A presumed non-surgical etiology

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Prior abdominal surgery
2. Concomitant use of other anticholinergic medication including but not limited to tricyclic antidepressants, antihistamines, benztropine mesylate
3. Signs and symptoms consistent with a bowel obstruction
4. Peritoneal signs
5. Suspected previous hypersensitivity reaction to either acetaminophen or HBB
6. Suspected appendicitis
7. History of abdominal trauma within 48 hours of presentation
8. Unstable vital signs
9. History of bowel obstruction
10. Myasthenia gravis
11. Fever (aural temperature > 38.2 C)
12. Chronic liver disease
13. Persistent vomiting despite administration of oral anti-emetic
14. Symptoms and signs consistent with a urinary tract infection
15. Symptoms and signs consistent with a toxin ingestion
16. Symptoms and signs consistent with gynecological or gonadal pathology
17. Symptoms and signs consistent with vasoocclusive crisis in a patient with a hemoglobinopathy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Quadruple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Hyoscine butylbromide; Hyoscine butylbromide 10mg oral single dose	Drug: Hyoscine butylbromide, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; Oral single dose; Other Names: Buscopan
Active Comparator: Acetaminophen; Acetaminophen 15mg/kg oral single dose (maximum 1000mg)	Drug: Acetaminophen, Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; Oral single dose; Other Names: Tylenol

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Analgesic Efficacy	Pain severity on a 100 mm Visual Analog Scale (VAS)	80 minutes post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Analgesic Efficacy	Pain severity on Faces Pain Scale - Revised and VAS	15 minutes post-intervention
Analgesic Efficacy	Pain severity on Faces Pain Scale - Revised and VAS	30 minutes post-intervention
Analgesic Efficacy	Pain severity on Faces Pain Scale - Revised and VAS	45 minutes post-intervention
Analgesic Efficacy	Pain severity on Faces Pain Scale - Revised and VAS	60 minutes post-intervention
Need for Rescue Analgesia	Frequency of rescue analgesia	80 minutes post-intervention
Time to Analgesia	Time to Achieve 20% Reduction in Faces Pain Score - Revised from time 0	80 minutes post-intervention
Adequacy of Sedation	Proportion of participants that achieve a pain score < 30 mm on the VAS	80 minutes post-intervention
Adverse Effects	Frequency of Adverse Effects	80 minutes post-intervention
Caregiver Satisfaction	Satisfaction scores on 5-Item Likert Scale	80 minutes post-intervention
Return visits	Proportion of participants with return visits for surgical pathology	72 hours post discharge

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Lawson Health Research Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Naveen Poonai, MD, Western University Health

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Poonai N, Kumar K, Coriolano K, Thompson G, Brahmbhatt S, Dzongowski E, Stevens H, Gupta P, Miller M, Elsie S, Ashok D, Joubert G, Lim R, Butter A, Ali S. Hyoscine butylbromide versus acetaminophen for nonspecific colicky abdominal pain in children: a randomized controlled trial. CMAJ. 2020 Nov 30;192(48):E1612-E1619. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.201055.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 20, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 3, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): February 22, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 13, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): October 21, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 2, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 30, 2019
• Last Verified: April 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Abdominal Pain; Abdomen, Acute; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Neurotransmitter Agents; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Parasympatholytics; Autonomic Agents; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Muscarinic Antagonists; Cholinergic Antagonists; Cholinergic Agents; Sensory System Agents; Antipyretics; Antiemetics; Gastrointestinal Agents; Adjuvants, Anesthesia; Mydriatics; Acetaminophen; Analgesics; Scopolamine; Butylscopolammonium Bromide; Analgesics, Non-Narcotic
• Other Study ID Numbers: 107243

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No