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TerminatedNCT00464490Updated Oct 31, 2014Results posted

Use of Dexmedetomidine to Facilitate Extubation in Surgical ICU Patients Who Failed Previous Weaning Attempts

An interventional study of Dexmedetomidine in Intubation; Difficult and Respiration Disorders, sponsored by University of California, San Francisco. Terminated at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 69 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2014-10-31.

Sponsored by University of California, San Francisco · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was terminated
Lack of eligible participants
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
42
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 69 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Mechanical ventilation commonly is associated with patient agitation requiring sedation to alleviate discomfort and reduce excessive central respiratory drive. Upon recovery from acute respiratory failure, sedation is reduced to facilitate the withdrawal of ventilatory support. In some patients, abrupt reduction in sedation provokes severe agitation that causes catecholamine release resulting in severe hypertension, tachycardia and tachypnea. This requires increased sedation to bring hemodynamic and respiratory function under control.

Dexmedetomidine is an alpha-2 receptor agonist with both sedative and analgesic properties that allows for the reduction in the anesthetic and analgesic requirements in the perioperative setting. In addition to its sedative effects, alpha-2 receptor stimulation in the central nervous system inhibits sympathetic activity and reduces plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, thereby lowering both arterial blood pressure and heart rate. Because alpha-2 receptor stimulation does not cause respiratory depression, dexmedetomidine may facilitate the transition to unassisted breathing in profoundly agitated patients. The investigators will prospectively evaluate dexmedetomidine in 30 patients who could not be extubated because of agitation with hemodynamic instability and tachypnea.

The purpose of this study is to test if a larger prospective randomized controlled pilot study can show that dexmedetomidine facilitates weaning and extubation in patients who have failed previous attempts because of agitation and hyperdynamic cardiopulmonary response.

Read the detailed description

Sixty patients who are admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) at San Francisco General Hospital will be referred to the investigators for enrollment into a prospective, unblinded, randomized study of dexmedetomidine. Each patient will be considered by the critical care team as a suitable candidate for weaning and extubation based on inclusion/ exclusion criteria. Pregnant patients will not be enrolled and this will be determined by a negative urine or serum pregnancy test from admission. If none is available a pregnancy test will be performed prior to enrollment. Patients considered difficult to wean will be based on the following criteria:

Eligible patients will be randomized to either the control arm or the dexmedetomidine arm in a 1:1 ratio by using sealed envelopes.

Patient randomized to the control arm will be extubated per standard hospital protocol. This arm of the study will be observational and these patients will be extubated by the attending physician for that patient whenever they are hemodynamically stable enough to tolerate another weaning trial. The study team will collect the same data points for the control arm as in the dexmedetomidine arm. This includes ABGs, heart rate, mean blood pressure, respiratory rate and RASS scores (see description below of data points and collection time points.) Arterial blood gases will be drawn for the control arm of the study.

Patients on the dexmedetomidine arm will be started on dexmedetomidine at either 0.5 mcg/kg/hr or 0.7 mcg/kg/hr 1 hour prior to extubation. The drug calculation was based upon an average taken between the patient's measured and predicted body weight. Background sedation will be generally facilitated with lorazepam, midazolam or propofol, while analgesia will be maintained with either fentanyl or hydromorphine. After starting dexmedetomidine background sedation and analgesia will be titrated down and discontinued if possible. Analgesia levels also will be reduced if tolerated. Dexmedetomidine will be titrated according to blood pressure, RASS and heart rate response and the dose will be lowered only after sedation is discontinued or markedly reduced. Aerosolized lidocaine (20 mg) therapy will be initiated prior to the weaning trial to prevent excessive coughing in all patients.

Shortly after the dexmedetomidine infusion is started, PSV will be commenced at 5 cm H2O above 5 cm H2O of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Patients will be weaned to CPAP and evaluated for extubation.

1.) Arterial blood gases will be obtained in all patients with an arterial line at three points in time: just prior to dexmedetomidine infusion, during the CPAP trial, and approximately 30 minutes after extubation.

3.) Heart rate, mean blood pressure, RASS, and respiratory rate will be collected at fifteen minute intervals 1 hour prior to dexmedetomidine infusion, during the 1 hour infusion of dexmedetomidine prior to the extubation then 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after extubation for a total of 4 hours of data collection.

02

Conditions studied

  • Intubation; Difficult
  • Respiration Disorders

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Keywords

  • Weaning
  • Extuvation
  • Dexmedetomidine
03

In context

Respiration Disorders

513 studies on the registry are indexed under Respiration Disorders; 98 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 42 is below the median of 64 across 290 interventional studies indexed under Respiration Disorders.

Browse Respiration Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

University of California, San Francisco is the lead sponsor of 2,132 studies on the registry; 375 are open to participants now.

Of its 262 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 196 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 69 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Age less than 70 years old
  2. Normothermia (36.5 degrees centigrade)
  3. Normal sinus rhythm
  4. Hemodynamically stable (systolic blood pressure [SBP] > 110 mmHg)
  5. Ejection fraction (EF) > 40%/absence of congestive heart failure (CHF)
  6. Cardiac index > 2.5 L/min/m2
  7. Minimal inotropic support (\< 3 mcg/kg/min dobutamine)
  8. Adequate coagulation profile
  9. Adequate urine output (> 100 ml/hr)
  10. Primary service and critical care physician agreement

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Prior use of clonidine or alpha-antagonists
  2. Prior history of intravenous drug abuse (IVDA) or alcohol abuse (ETOH)
  3. Evidence of heart block
  4. Difficulty with oxygenation/ventilation
  5. Renal or hepatic insufficiency
  6. Pregnant (positive urine or serum pregnancy test upon admission)
  7. Patient received dexmedetomidine > 24 hours
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
42 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • No intervention
    Standard Hospital Ventilation Weaning Protocol

    Control. Hospital weaning protocol

  • Experimental
    Dexmedetomidine for Extubation

    Dexmedomidine infusion to facilitate extubation

    Drug: Dexmedetomidine

Interventions

  • DrugDexmedetomidine

    Dexmedetomidine .5mcg/kg/hr-.7mcg/kg/hr 1hour prior to extubation. Dexmedetomidine will be titrated according to blood pressure, RASS and heart rate response and the dose will be lowered only after sedation is discontinued or markedly reduced.

    Also known as: Precedex

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Mechanical Ventilation Time

    Time frame: time from first weaning attempt to successful extubation

07

Results

Posted Oct 31, 2014
Limitations and caveats
Lower than anticipated enrollment due to unwillingness of providers to assign patients to the control group led to smaller-than-planned samples for analysis

Participant flow

Total accrual reached 42 of the planned 60; unanticipated common usage of Dexmedetomidine led to difficulty recruiting intubated/sedated patients who had not used it within protocol-specified period prior to enrollment. Also, some providers were not willing to allow patient assignment to the control arm given the popular usage of the drug.

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneDexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)
Started2121
Completed1010
Not completed1111
Withdrew: Physician decision1111

Outcome measures

PrimaryMechanical Ventilation Time
Time frame:
time from first weaning attempt to successful extubation
Reported as:
Mean · hours
Mechanical Ventilation Time
hoursDexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)
Mechanical Ventilation Time59.2 ± 139.4203.9 ± 150.7
Statistical analysis
  • Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG) vs Standard Hospital Protocol (CG) · t-test, 2 sided · p = 0.02 (P-value \<0.05 was considered significant)

Adverse events

Collected over 2 hour pre- to 2 hours post-extubation. Non-serious events are listed at a 5% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)—0/10 (0%)0/10 (0%)
Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)—0/10 (0%)0/10 (0%)

Baseline characteristics

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)Total
<=18 years000
Between 18 and 65 years101020
>=65 years000
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)Total
Female5510
Male5510
Region of Enrollment
Region of Enrollment(participants)Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)Total
United States101020
Ramsay Sedation Scale (RSS)
Ramsay Sedation Scale (RSS)(units on a scale)Dexmedetomidine for Extubation (DG)Standard Hospital Protocol (CG)Total
Mean3.5 ± 1.22.1 ± 1.13 ± 3
08

Study locations

1 site
  • University of California, San Francisco
    San Francisco, California 94110, United States
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 31, 2014, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00464490
Lead sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 23, 2007
Start date
Nov 2007
Primary completion
May 2012
Completion
Dec 2012
Results posted
Oct 31, 2014
Last update
Oct 31, 2014

Study contacts

Julin F Tang, M.D., M.S.
principal investigator · University of California, San Francisco

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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