MedPath

Norepinephrine vs Phenylephrine During General Anesthesia

Phase 4
Completed
Conditions
Anesthesia
Surgery
Hypotension
Interventions
Registration Number
NCT04789330
Lead Sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
Brief Summary

50 million patients undergo surgery each year in the United States. Postoperative mortality is considered the third leading cause of death worldwide. Hypotension during surgery have been linked to increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. Episodes of hypotension during surgery are associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury, stroke, cardiac events and death. Treating or preventing hypotension during general anesthesia and major surgery was found to improve outcomes. At this time, it is unclear what is the best vasopressor to maintain blood pressure during surgery under general anesthesia. With this pilot pragmatic trial, the investigators will explore the impact of norepinephrine (NE) or phenylephrine (PE) on post-operative events in patients undergoing major surgery with general anesthesia and needing vasopressors infusion to maintain their systemic arterial pressure.

Detailed Description

Postoperative mortality is considered the third leading cause of death worldwide. Hemodynamic instability and specifically hypotension during surgery have been linked to increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. Episodes of hypotension during surgery are associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury, stroke, cardiac events and death. Treating or preventing hypotension during general anesthesia and major surgery was found to improve outcomes. At this time, it is unclear what is the best vasopressor to maintain blood pressure during surgery.

Hypotension during anesthesia and surgery is commonly treated with vasopressors such as phenylephrine (PE), a synthetic pure vasoconstrictor, or norepinephrine (NE), which has both inotropic and vasoconstrictor activity. NE increases cardiac output and increases cardio-vascular coupling due to alpha-agonist effects compared to PE, a purely vasoconstrictive agent.

The investigators hypothesize that norepinephrine will be superior to phenylephrine. The effect size is expected to be modest, therefore requiring a large sample size, and will vary between subgroups determined by patients' individual characteristics.

This pilot trial (VEGA-1) will allow to 1) test the feasibility of the study using a cross-over cluster randomized controlled trial and 2) estimate the effect size of the use of NE or PE on post-operative outcome in the overall population but also investigate the Heterogeneity in Treatment Effect (HTE) of the drugs among subgroups or clusters of patients for designing a larger trial.

Design: pragmatic, cluster-randomized, open-labeled, multiple-crossover trial across hospital from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Centers will be assigned to use either PE or NE for the first-line intravenous infusion of vasopressor in the OR. Data will be collected in routine clinical care and automatically extracted from the electronic health record (EHR).

Primary endpoint:

- Separation between study groups in the first line vasopressor administration (% of cases with appropriate vasopressor with respect to group attribution).

Secondary endpoints:

* Death within 30 days

* Acute kidney injury defined by the KDIGO definition

* Severe acute kidney injury (stage 2 or 3 of the KDIGO definition)

* Myocardial Injury following non-cardiac surgery (MINS)

* Adverse cardio-renal events

* Hospital length of stay

* Rehospitalization within 30 days

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
2000
Inclusion Criteria
  • age 18 Years and older
  • Surgery under general anesthesia and requiring infusion of vasopressors to maintain the mean arterial pressure.
  • Surgery duration>2 hours
Exclusion Criteria
  • Cardiac surgery
  • Patients on ECMO
  • Organ transplantation
  • Outpatient (come-and-go surgery)
  • Obstetric procedures
  • Patient already receiving NE or PE before induction of anesthesia
  • Patients transferred immediately (i.e. within 24 hours) after surgery to another hospital.
  • Patients with severe trauma

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
NorepinephrineNorepinephrineNorepinephrine continuous infusion as the first line vasopressor
PhenylephrinePhenylephrinePhenylephrine continuous infusion as the first line vasopressor
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Percent of total cases with assigned vasopressor givenAnesthesia time, up to 24 hours

First line vasopressor administration will be measured as a percent of total eligible cases with assigned vasopressor given during anesthesia time, up to 24 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Acute kidney injury (AKI)7 days

AKI using the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) definition based on serum creatinine

Severe acute kidney injury7 days

Stage 2 or 3 AKI using the KDIGO definition based on serum creatinine or need for Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT)

Myocardial Injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS)7 days

Number of patients with post-operative myocardial injury defined as a troponin elevation

Death30 days

Number of participants dying within 30 days after surgery

Hospital length of stayIn-hospital, up to 30 days

Days between date of surgery and hospital discharge

Adverse Cardio-renal events7 days

Number of patients meeting a combined endpoint of AKI and/or MINS

Rehospitalization within 30 days30 days

Patients discharge and readmitted for more than 24 hours within 30 days after surgery

Trial Locations

Locations (5)

UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus

🇺🇸

San Francisco, California, United States

UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay

🇺🇸

San Francisco, California, United States

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

🇺🇸

Los Angeles, California, United States

Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital

🇺🇸

San Francisco, California, United States

UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion

🇺🇸

San Francisco, California, United States

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