Critical Research Appraisal
Critical Appraisal
Charlene Clark
Loewenberg School of Nursing
Abstract
The purpose of this critical appraisal is to review a particular recent research article with appropriate implication to nursing practice of the article comparing two acute migraine treatment modalities intravenous prochlorperazine and diphenhydramine versus subcutaneous sumatriptan (Kostic, Gutierrez, Rieg, Moore, & Gendron, 2010).
Critical Appraisal
Title and Abstract
The title “A prospective, randomized trial of intravenous prochlorperazine versus subcutaneous sumatriptan in acute migraine therapy in the emergency department” succinctly describes the research that is conducted. The abstract is very brief and includes the study purpose, sample size, design description, and conclusion. The abstract would have been strengthened by clearly stating the problem. The problem is distinguishing the most efficacious treatment of the two medications as evidenced by the patient’s adequate relief of pain, nausea, and/or sedation. Also, the abstract lacked a background section stating previous research conclusions regarding one or both of these medications treatment of migraines. The gap of knowledge is expressed in the introduction background section. There is only one previous study, published in abstract form that reports prochlorperazine superior in treatment of migraines, but does not compare both drugs. This previous study lends to the reader a weak premise based upon the small sample size and lack of published full research. The limited previous study does lend to a problem that is significant to generate knowledge for practice. Migraines are among the top three reasons to visit the emergency department(ED) constituting 2.2% of all US ED visits (Kostic et al., 2010, p. 1). Studies of various medication treatments exist regarding effective migraine treatment, but not with a statistically significant sample to compare prochlorperazine and sumatriptan with a measure of
Charlene Clark
Loewenberg School of Nursing
Abstract
The purpose of this critical appraisal is to review a particular recent research article with appropriate implication to nursing practice of the article comparing two acute migraine treatment modalities intravenous prochlorperazine and diphenhydramine versus subcutaneous sumatriptan (Kostic, Gutierrez, Rieg, Moore, & Gendron, 2010).
Critical Appraisal
Title and Abstract
The title “A prospective, randomized trial of intravenous prochlorperazine versus subcutaneous sumatriptan in acute migraine therapy in the emergency department” succinctly describes the research that is conducted. The abstract is very brief and includes the study purpose, sample size, design description, and conclusion. The abstract would have been strengthened by clearly stating the problem. The problem is distinguishing the most efficacious treatment of the two medications as evidenced by the patient’s adequate relief of pain, nausea, and/or sedation. Also, the abstract lacked a background section stating previous research conclusions regarding one or both of these medications treatment of migraines. The gap of knowledge is expressed in the introduction background section. There is only one previous study, published in abstract form that reports prochlorperazine superior in treatment of migraines, but does not compare both drugs. This previous study lends to the reader a weak premise based upon the small sample size and lack of published full research. The limited previous study does lend to a problem that is significant to generate knowledge for practice. Migraines are among the top three reasons to visit the emergency department(ED) constituting 2.2% of all US ED visits (Kostic et al., 2010, p. 1). Studies of various medication treatments exist regarding effective migraine treatment, but not with a statistically significant sample to compare prochlorperazine and sumatriptan with a measure of
References: Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2011). Understanding nursing research (5th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier. Kostic, M. A., Gutierrez, F. J., Rieg, T. S., Moore, T. S., & Gendron, R. T. (2010). A prospective, randomized trial of intravenous prochlorperazine versus subcutaneous sumatriptan in acute migraine therapy in the emergency department. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 56(1), 1-6. doi: 10.1097/TME.Ob013e31822384fb