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TerminatedNCT00878956Updated Aug 1, 2012

Bicarbonate in Cardiac Surgery

A Phase 2 interventional study of Sodium Bicarbonate and Sodium Chloride in Acute Kidney Injury, sponsored by Austin Health. Terminated at 4 sites in 2 countries. Open to participants aged 70 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2012-08-01.

Sponsored by Austin Health · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
427
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
70 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

With over one million operations a year, cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass is one of the most common major surgical procedures worldwide (1). Acute kidney injury is a common and serious postoperative complication of cardiopulmonary bypass and may affect 25% to 50% of patients (2-4). Acute kidney injury carries significant costs (4) and is independently associated with increased morbidity and mortality (2,3). Even minimal increments in plasma creatinine are associated with an increase in mortality (5,6).

Multiple causes of cardiopulmonary bypass-associated acute kidney injury have been proposed, including ischemia-reperfusion, generation of reactive oxygen species, hemolysis and activation of inflammatory pathways (7-10). To date, no simple, safe and effective intervention to prevent cardiopulmonary bypass-associated acute kidney injury in a broad patient population has been found (11-14).

Urinary acidity may enhance the generation and toxicity of reactive oxygen species induced by cardiopulmonary bypass (10,15). Activation of complement during cardiac surgery (16) may also participate in kidney injury. Urinary alkalinization may protect from kidney injury induced by oxidant substances, iron-mediated free radical pathways, complement activation and tubular hemoglobin cast formation (9,17,18). Of note, increasing urinary pH - in combination with N-acetylcysteine (19,20) or without (21) - has recently been reported to attenuate acute kidney injury in patients undergoing contrast-media infusion.

In a pilot double-blind, randomized controlled trial the investigators found sodium bicarbonate to be efficacious, safe, inexpensive and easy to administer. These findings now need to be confirmed or refuted by further clinical investigations in other geographic and institutional settings.

Accordingly, the investigators hypothesized that urinary alkalinization might protect kidney function in patients at increased risk of acute kidney injury undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass needs to be confirmed in an international multicenter, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of intravenous sodium bicarbonate.

Read the detailed description

Renal impairment following cardiopulmonary bypass is common. While most of these patients do not require either short or long term renal replacement, the mortality of patients with acute renal failure is substantially greater than those who do not develop renal dysfunction.

In a pilot double-blind, randomized controlled trial we found sodium bicarbonate to be efficacious, safe, inexpensive and easy to administer. These findings now need to be confirmed or refuted by further clinical investigations in other geographic and institutional settings.

There is evidence that sodium bicarbonate affects the cardiovascular, respiratory and immune systems and may be of benefit to patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Study Design - overview and rationale

Patients will be randomised to receive sodium bicarbonate from the induction of anaesthesia until 24 hours postoperatively, or a placebo (sodium chloride).

Serum creatinine is the most commonly used clinical indicator of renal function along with urine output. Both will be measured for several days postoperatively - the time period during which renal impairment is most likely to develop.

Randomisation The randomisation will be based on random numbers generated by computer. Once consent is obtained, the allocation of either treatment with sodium bicarbonate or placebo will be organised by an independent person (clinical trials pharmacist) who will dispense the coded and blinded infusion bags (shrink-wrapped in extra black plastic bags). This will be delivered to the anaesthetic staff looking after the patient in theatre, and the ICU nurse caring for the patient postoperatively.

20 ml samples of heparinised blood and urine will be taken from the arterial line or urine catheter. Samples will be taken immediately after the preoperative insertion of the arterial/urine catheter, at 6, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours after commencement of cardiopulmonary bypass. Immediately following collection, the preoperative, 6 and 24 hour blood and urine will be centrifuged at low speed to separate the plasma from the cellular components. Urine and plasma will be stored in aliquots at -70 degrees prior to batch analysis.

The following variables will be obtained:

Code for patient, gender and age. Date and time of admission to ICU Operative procedure and date and time on and off cardiopulmonary bypass Preoperative assessment of left ventricular function, Comorbidities, Pre-, intra- and post-operative medication, Markers of renal function as described above, Doses of frusemide administered (or rate of frusemide infusion) Use of inotropes or vasopressors Cardiac output whenever measured for clinical purposes in the first 24 hours postoperatively Requirement of renal replacement therapy Urine output in each 6 hour period during the presence of urine catheter Acid base status and electrolytes at baseline, 6 and 24 hours after commencement of cardiopulmonary bypass, Time of intubation and extubation, Date and time of arrival on and discharge from ICU and hospital, death Resources required The principle of the study has been discussed with the involved cardiac anaesthetists, cardiac surgeons, intensivists and intensive care nurses, who have offered their co-operation. ICU research nurse to allocate patients and collect clinical data. Pharmacy will be required to prepare drug and placebo infusion bags. Clinical pathology will be required to perform 24 hour creatinine clearance estimation (in addition to those tests clinically indicated) Protocol violations All protocol violations will be recorded. It will then be decided whether the nature of such violation had been such that the patient should be excluded from primary data analysis. Such evaluation will be blinded to treatment.

Withdrawal

The treating clinician will have the right to withdraw the patient from the study if he or she believes that continued participation is jeopardising the patient's well being.

Ethical Issues

Sodium bicarbonate used in this study is considered to be very safe as has been demonstrated by its widespread clinical use in the management of critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis. We consider the potential benefit of this treatment theoretically significant. Given the balance of benefits and risks, we consider it ethical to proceed and seek informed consent.

Indemnity

This is an investigator-initiated study and, accordingly, no commercial sponsor's indemnity has been provided.

Informed consent will be obtained from the patient prior to the operation by one of the investigators or the ICU research nurse. The clinical care of a patient who does not consent for any reason will not be affected.

02

Conditions studied

  • Acute Kidney Injury

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Keywords

  • Cardiac surgery
  • Cardiopulmonary bypass
  • Oxidative stress
  • Acute renal dysfunction
  • Sodium bicarbonate
03

In context

Acute Kidney Injury

1,594 studies on the registry are indexed under Acute Kidney Injury; 370 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 427 is above the median of 100 across 763 interventional studies indexed under Acute Kidney Injury.

Browse Acute Kidney Injury studies →

Lead sponsor

Austin Health is the lead sponsor of 41 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
70 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Age above 70 years
  • Pre-existing renal impairment (preoperative plasma creatinine concentration > 1.4 mg/dL
  • New York Heart Association class III/IV or impaired left ventricular function (left ventricular ejection fraction \< 50%)
  • Valvular surgery or concomitant valvular and coronary artery bypass graft surgery
  • Redo cardiac surgery
  • Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • End stage renal disease (plasma creatinine concentration > 3.4 mg/dL)
  • Emergency cardiac surgery
  • Planned off-pump cardiac surgery
  • Known blood-borne infectious disease
  • Chronic inflammatory disease on immunosuppression
  • Chronic moderate to high dose corticosteroid therapy (> 10 mg/d prednisone or equivalent)
  • Enrolled in conflicting research study
  • Age \< 18 years
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
427 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    1

    In all patients body weight adjusted dose of study medication will be achieved by infusion of sodium bicarbonate at a dose of 0.5 mmol/kg body weight (=bolus) diluted in 250 mL over 1 hour immediately after the induction of anesthesia, prior to the first surgical incision followed by continuous intravenous infusion of 0.2 mmol/kg/hr (=maintenance) diluted in 1000 mL 23 hours (total dose of 5 mmol/kg over 24 hours).

    Drug: Sodium Bicarbonate

  • Placebo comparator
    2

    In all patients body weight adjusted dose of study medication will be achieved by infusion of sodium chloride at a dose of 0.5 mmol/kg body weight (=bolus) diluted in 250 mL over 1 hour immediately after the induction of anesthesia, prior to the first surgical incision followed by continuous intravenous infusion of 0.2 mmol/kg/hr (=maintenance) diluted in 1000 mL 23 hours (total dose of 5 mmol/kg over 24 hours).

    Drug: Sodium Chloride

Interventions

  • DrugSodium Bicarbonate

    In all patients body weight adjusted dose of study medication will be achieved by infusion of sodium bicarbonate at a dose of 0.5 mmol/kg body weight (=bolus) diluted in 250 mL over 1 hour immediately after the induction of anesthesia, prior to the first surgical incision followed by continuous intravenous infusion of 0.2 mmol/kg/hr (=maintenance) diluted in 1000 mL 23 hours (total dose of 5 mmol/kg over 24 hours).

  • DrugSodium Chloride

    In all patients body weight adjusted dose of study medication will be achieved by infusion of sodium chloride at a dose of 0.5 mmol/kg body weight (=bolus) diluted in 250 mL over 1 hour immediately after the induction of anesthesia, prior to the first surgical incision followed by continuous intravenous infusion of 0.2 mmol/kg/hr (=maintenance) diluted in 1000 mL 23 hours (total dose of 5 mmol/kg over 24 hours).

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Proportion of patients developing an increase in serum creatinine greater than 25% or 44 mmol/L (0.5 mg/dL) postoperative increase in serum creatinine after adjustment for relevant baseline variables

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Mean changes in serum creatinine after adjustment for relevant baseline variables

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

  2. mean changes in serum cystatin C after adjustment for relevant baseline variables

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

  3. mean changes in urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL)after adjustment for relevant baseline variables

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

  4. Duration of ventilation

    Time frame: Until time of extubation from mechanical ventilation

  5. Proportion of patients developing any of the RIFLE criteria: R, I or F

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

  6. Incidence of post-operative atrial fibrillation

    Time frame: within first five postoperative days

  7. Duration of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU)

    Time frame: from admission to the ICU

  8. Duration of stay in hospital

    Time frame: from admission to discharge from hospital

  9. 90-day mortality

    Time frame: during 90 days postoperatively

  10. Change in electrolyte status from baseline to peak

    Time frame: within first 24-48hrs postoperatively

07

Study locations

4 sites
  • Austin Hospital
    Melbourne, Victoria 3084, Australia
  • Warringal Private Hospital
    Melbourne, Victoria 3084, Australia
  • Auckland City Hospital
    Auckland, New Zealand
  • Waikato Hospital
    Hamilton, New Zealand
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 1, 2012, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00878956
Lead sponsor
Austin Health
Responsible party
Rinaldo Bellomo (Director of ICU Research, Austin Health) — Principal investigator
First posted
Apr 9, 2009
Start date
Apr 2009
Primary completion
Jun 2011
Completion
Jan 2012
Last update
Aug 1, 2012

Study contacts

Rinaldo Bellomo, MD, FRACP
principal investigator · Austin Hospital, Melbourne Australia
Frank van Haren, MD
study chair · Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, New Zealand
Shay McGuinness, MB ChB, FRCA, FANZCA
study chair · Auckland City Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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