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CompletedNCT01432925BurulitimeUpdated Jul 22, 2019

Timing of Surgical Intervention in Buruli Ulcer Patients Treated With Antibiotics

An interventional study of surgical intervention on Buruli ulcer in Mycobacterium Ulcerans Disease and Buruli Ulcer, sponsored by University Medical Center Groningen. Completed at 2 sites in Benin. Open to participants aged 3 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-07-22.

Sponsored by University Medical Center Groningen · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
119
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
3 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

SUMMARY

Rationale: Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is an ulcerative disease endemic in West Africa. It often leads to functional limitations. Treatment was by extensive surgery, until in 2005 gradually antibiotic treatment for eight weeks with rifampicin and streptomycin was added. Observation of Buruli ulcer lesions of limited size during antibiotic treatment showed that during treatment there is a paradoxical increase of the lesion, with a decrease of the lesion after week 14. Current WHO protocols advise to decide whether surgery is needed four weeks after the start of antibiotics. This might be too early in the healing process. The investigators hypothesize that delay in surgery is safe, and that it results in a reduction of the number of surgical interventions.

Objectives:

Primary Objective of this study is to compare the need for surgical treatment in standard timing of surgery at the end of eight weeks antimicrobial treatment with a policy to postpone surgical treatment until week 14.

Secondary Objectives are to study whether postponing surgery leads to less extensive surgery and a change in frequency of functional limitations;

Study design:

Patients will be randomized for surgery at week 8 after start of antibiotic treatment and week 14 after start of treatment. Reasons for treating doctors to decide to intervene with surgery will be according to current clinical practice and will be clearly defined in this protocol. Standard care of eight weeks of rifampicin and streptomycin will be given. All patients will be followed and lesional size using acetate sheet recordings will be used during follow-up.

Study population: Patients with a clinical picture of Buruli ulcer disease confirmed by diagnostic tests in the districts covered by the Buruli ulcer centers in Lalo and Allada, Benin. Patients who are pregnant, have a contraindication for general anaesthesia and children below three years old will be excluded. 130 Patients in each treatment arm will be included to detect a difference in percentage of patients needing surgery of 20 percent.

Main study parameters/endpoints: Primary outcome measure is the number of patients healed without surgery. Secondary outcome measures are the extent of surgery by measurement of lesional size, functional limitations after the end of treatment and one year after the start of treatment and the duration of admission.

02

Conditions studied

  • Mycobacterium Ulcerans Disease
  • Buruli Ulcer

Keywords

  • Buruli ulcer
  • Mycobacterium ulcerans
  • Streptomycin
  • Rifampicin
  • Functional limitations
  • surgery
  • Bénin
03

In context

Lead sponsor

University Medical Center Groningen is the lead sponsor of 627 studies on the registry; 176 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

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

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients with a clinical picture of Buruli ulcer disease in the districts covered by the Buruli ulcer centers in Lalo and Allada, Benin, will be included at start of antibiotic treatment.
  • All stages of the disease will be included. Only patients with confirmed disease by direct microscopy following acid-fast staining or PCR will be included.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients not on the standard treatment of eight weeks of rifampicin and streptomycin for any reason, will be excluded from this study.
  • Treatment with macrolide or quinolone antibiotics, or antituberculous medication, or immune-modulatory drugs including within the previous one month.
  • Patients not compliant with the antibiotic therapy will be excluded as well. Non-compliance is defined as the use of \< 70 % of the prescribed antibiotics.
  • Patients with a for general anaesthesia are not able to participate.
  • Pregnancy.
  • Osteomyelitis.
  • Lesion close to the eye, with preferred standard treatment to wait for effect antibiotic treatment on extent surgery.
  • The BUFLS (Buruli ulcer functional limitation score) cannot be applied to children below three years and therefore will not participate.
  • Patients reporting to refuse surgery at any point in the intended treatment, cannot be included.
  • Any situation or condition which may compromise ability to comply with the trial procedures.
  • Patients known to be positive.
  • Lack of willingness to give (and/or assent by parent/legal representative).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

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Informed consent

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05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
119 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    evaluation surgical intervention at week 8

    Procedure: surgical intervention on Buruli ulcer

  • Other
    evaluation surgical intervention at week 14

    Procedure: surgical intervention on Buruli ulcer

Interventions

  • Proceduresurgical intervention on Buruli ulcer

    Can the need for surgical intervention be avoided by delay of the decision on surgical intervention, comparing the need on surgical intervention from time points of week 8 and week 14 (number of weeks after start of antibiotic treatment with streptomycin/rifampicin).

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Healing without surgical intervention

    measurement of lesions at follow up visit, if lesion closed-\> healed.

    Time frame: one year

07

Study locations

2 sites
  • Buruli ulcer center Allada
    Allada, Benin
  • Buruli ulcer center Lalo
    Lalo, Benin
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Wadagni AC, Barogui YT, Johnson RC, Sopoh GE, Affolabi D, van der Werf TS, de Zeeuw J, Kleinnijenhuis J, Stienstra Y. Delayed versus standard assessment for excision surgery in patients with Buruli ulcer in Benin: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2018 Jun;18(6):650-656. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30160-9. Epub 2018 Apr 5. PubMed 29605498 ↗
  • Barogui YT, Klis SA, Johnson RC, Phillips RO, van der Veer E, van Diemen C, van der Werf TS, Stienstra Y. Genetic Susceptibility and Predictors of Paradoxical Reactions in Buruli Ulcer. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Apr 20;10(4):e0004594. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004594. eCollection 2016 Apr. PubMed 27097163 ↗
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Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Sep 2011, a primary completion of Dec 2016 and a completion of Dec 2016. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 8, 2011
First posted
Sep 13, 2011
Start
Sep 2011
Primary completionActual
Dec 2016
CompletionActual
Dec 2016
Last update
Jul 22, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 22, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01432925
Collaborators
PNLUB, Ministère de la santé, Cotonou, République du Bénin., Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries
Responsible party
Ymkje Stienstra (MD PhD, University Medical Center Groningen) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 13, 2011
Start date
Sep 2011
Primary completion
Dec 2016
Completion
Dec 2016
Last update
Jul 22, 2019

Study contacts

D Agossadou, MD
principal investigator · Program national lutte contre la lèpre et l'ulcère de Buruli, ministère de la santé, Hospital Lalo
G Sopoh, MD PhD
principal investigator · Program national lutte contre la lèpre et l'ulcère de Buruli, Ministère de la Santé, Cotonou, Bénin, hospital Allada
Tjip S van der Werf, MD PhD
principal investigator · UMCG - internal medicine/infectious diseases
R OC Johnson, MD PhD
principal investigator · Cotonou, Bénin

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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