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NCT Number: NCT04853446

Oral Dexamethasone as an Adjunct to a Brachial Plexus Block in Patients Undergoing Orthopaedic Surgery of the Forearm and Hand

The investigators will assess the beneficial and harmful effects of oral dexamethasone (12 mg or 24 mg) versus placebo in patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery of their hand or forearm with a lateral infraclavicular brachial plexus block as the means of providing anaesthesia and analgesia.

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Key information

Conditions

Anesthesia, Local

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Phase 4

Primary location

Department of Anaesthesiology, Køge, Zealand Region of Denmark, Denmark

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About this study

This is a randomised, blinded, placebo-controlled, multicentre, parallel, 3-arm clinical trial assessing the effects of adjunct oral dexamethasone (12mg or 24mg) versus placebo on time to first pain (i.e. block duration) in patients undergoing surgery of the forearm or hand. At the initiation of the trial, no other trials had examined the effects of oral dexamethasone as an adjunct to peripheral nerve blocks.

The investigators will randomise participants to either oral dexamethasone 12mg, oral dexamethasone 24mg, or placebo. Participants will be allocated according to a computer-generated random allocation sequence with random permuted blocks and stratification by site. Glostrup Pharmacy produced the trial medication and sequentially numbered the drug containers, thereby concealing the allocation.

All involved will be blinded for the entire duration of the trial (participant, carers, investigators, people delivering the intervention, observers/outcome assessors, statisticians). Blinding will not be broken until agreement has been reached within the steering committee regarding the statistical analysis. The trial medication is produced as identically appearing opaque capsules containing either dexamethasone or placebo. The trial medication is contained within identically appearing, sequentially labelled containers.

The investigators expect little to no attrition bias since the intervention is simple with a short follow-up. The investigators expect some missing data for duration of the motor block, as most participants will have the affected limb immobilized post-surgery, thereby making assessment of return of motor function difficult.

The investigators pre-defined the statistical analysis plan prior to unblinded data becoming available. The analysis plan can be found on: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22491214.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Scheduled for unilateral osseous surgery of the hand or forearm.
  • Anaesthesia with an infraclavicular brachial plexus block
  • Age of 18 or above
  • American Society of Anaesthesiologists Physical Status Score of 1 to 3
  • Body Mass Index of 18 to 40, but a minimum weight of 50 kg.
  • For fertile women, negative urine humane choriongonadotropine test and use of safe anti-conception
  • Ability to understand the trial protocol, risks and benefits, and provide signed informed consent

Exclusion criteria

  • Inability to read and understand Danish
  • Uncooperativeness (as judged by investigators)
  • Participation in another trial involving medication
  • Allergy to study medication
  • Daily use of opioids above 30 mg/day morphine (or equivalents)
  • Daily use of corticosteroids of more than 5 mg prednisolone equivalents within the past one month
  • Neurological or musculoskeletal disease making block performance impossible (as judged by investigators)
  • Dysregulated diabetes (as judged by investigators)
  • Dysregulated anti-coagulants (as judged by investigators)
  • History of drug or alcohol abuse
  • Glaucoma
  • Contraindications for paracetamol or opioids
  • Other concomitant conditions needing surgery
  • Other concomitant traumatic injuries

Treatment and study plan

Dexamethasone 12 mg

Drug

Two identically appearing, opaque capsules will be administered: one capsule containing 12 mg of dexamethasone and one capsule containing placebo.

Placebo

Drug

Two identically appearing, opaque capsules will be administered: two capsules containing placebo.

Dexamethasone 24 mg

Drug

Two identically appearing, opaque capsules will be administered: two capsules each containing 12mg dexamethasone.

Primary outcomes

  1. Time to first pain (measured in minutes)

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Time to first pain will be recorded by the patient and measured as the time to first perceived pain in minutes in the surgical area. The patient will be asked to record the time and date of their first perceived pain in their trial log. This date and time will be compared to the date and time of the block performance as recorded in the electronic Case Report Form. In the event of the patient not experiencing any pain, the time to first pain will be set to 48 hours.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Duration of the motor block (measured in minutes)

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Duration of the motor block will be recorded by the patient and measured in minutes as the time from removal of the needle to the first movement of their bicep muscle on the operative site, and not the first movement of their distal extremity. The patient will record the date and time of their time to first bicep movement on the operative side in their trial log. This date and time will be compared to the date and time of the block performance as registered in the electronic Case Report Form. In the event of the patient not regaining movement of the bicep, the duration of the motor block will be set to 48 hours.

  2. Quality of sleep (Numerical Rating Scale) postoperative night 1

    Time frame: 24 hours

    Sleep will be measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to the worst possible sleep and '10' points correspond to the best possible sleep. This outcome measure will be recorded by the patients in their trial log after the first postoperative night.

  3. Quality of sleep (Numerical Rating Scale) postoperative night 2

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Sleep will be measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to the worst possible sleep and '10' points correspond to the best possible sleep. This outcome measure will be recorded by the patients in their trial log after the second postoperative night.

  4. Proportion of participants with one or more serious adverse events.

    Time frame: 30 days

    Serious adverse events as defined by the ICH-GCP will be collected and reported as the proportion of participants with one or more serious adverse events. Furthermore, the individual serious adverse events will also be reported.

  5. Proportion of participants with one or more adverse events not considered to be serious

    Time frame: 48 hours

    We will record any adverse events not considered to be serious. We will report the proportion of participants with one or more adverse events not considered to be serious and all individual adverse events not considered to be serious.

Other outcomes

  1. Cumulative oxycodone consumption (measured in milligrams) at 24 hours

    Time frame: 24 hours

    Cumulative oxycodone consumption will be recorded in the electronic medical files of the patients during hospitalisation and in their trial log at 24 hours and 48 hours by the patient after discharge. The patient will be instructed to record whenever they ingest escape oxycodone, as well as record the total amount of ingested escape oxycodone at 48 hours postoperatively. The patient will be instructed to not count in any usual opioid consumption, but only the escape oxycodone provided by the investigators.

  2. Cumulative oxycodone consumption (measured in milligrams) at 48 hours

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Cumulative oxycodone consumption will be recorded in the electronic medical files of the patients during hospitalisation and in their trial log at 24 hours and 48 hours by the patient after discharge. The patient will be instructed to record whenever they ingest escape oxycodone, as well as record the total amount of ingested escape oxycodone at 48 hours postoperatively. The patient will be instructed to not count in any usual opioid consumption, but only the escape oxycodone provided by the investigators.

  3. Pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) at 24 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 24 hours

    Pain will be recorded during rest and measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain. The patients will record their perceived pain at 24 hours postoperatively in their trial log.

  4. Average pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) from 0 to 24 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 24 hours

    Participants will judge their average pain from 0 to 24 hours postoperatively as measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain.

  5. Worst pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) from 0 to 24 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 24 hours

    Participants will judge their worst pain from 0 to 24 hours postoperatively as measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain.

  6. Pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) at 48 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Pain will be recorded during rest and measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain. The patients will record their perceived pain at 48 hours postoperatively in their trial log.

  7. Average pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) from 24 to 48 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Participants will judge their average pain from 24 to 48 hours postoperatively as measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain.

  8. Worst pain (measured on the Numerical Rating Scale) from 24 to 48 hours postoperatively

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Participants will judge their worst pain from 24 to 48 hours postoperatively as measured on the Numerical Rating Scale from '0' to '10' points where '0' points correspond to no pain and '10' points correspond to the worst possible pain.

  9. Patient satisfaction (added after initiation of the trial, will only be available for a subset of the patients)

    Time frame: 48 hours

    Patients will be inquired about their satisfaction with a peripheral nerve block related to:

    • Pain during block performance (Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) from 0 to 10).
    • Discomfort associated with having a blocked extremity (NRS from 0 to 10, 0 no discomfort & 10 worst discomfort).
    • Pain immediately after block cessation (NRS from '0' to '10').
    • Overall satisfaction with block (NRS from 0 to 10, 0 worst & 10 best).
    • If the participant would accept a block in the future (yes/no)
    • If the participant would recommend a block to others (yes/no).
    • If the block duration was too long, too short, or adequate.
    • Satisfaction with content of information regarding block (NRS 0 to 10, 0 worst & 10 best)
    • Satisfaction with the amount of information regarding block (NRS 0 to 10, 0 worst & 10 best)

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Zealand University Hospital

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Oral Dexamethasone as an Adjunct to a Brachial Plexus Block in Patients Undergoing Orthopaedic Surgery of the Forearm and Hand. A Randomised, Blinded, Placebo-controlled, Parallel, Triple-arm Clinical Trial.

Acronym: ADJUNCT1

Important dates

Study start
2021
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Apr 21, 2021
Registry last updated
May 25, 2023

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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