A Phase 2/3 interventional study of Tranexamic Acid and Placebo in Spinal Injuries and Spinal Deformity, sponsored by Columbia University. Recruiting at 4 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-06.
Sponsored by Columbia University · Phase 2/3, Interventional, and Treatment
This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy of topical tranexamic acid to reduce perioperative blood loss, reduction in postoperative drain output and allogenic transfusion requirements.
The proposed study will be a prospective, randomized, double-blind (subject, surgeons, investigators, research coordinators) placebo-controlled study. Patients requiring posterior spinal fusion will be enrolled for this study. Furthermore, patients undergoing elective complex deformity surgery will also be enrolled. Both populations of patients will be randomized into two groups. Group I will receive standard of care operative fixation with topical tranexamic acid intervention (test); Group II will receive standard of care operative fixation with normal saline (placebo) intervention. This study will have a 2-year follow-up and will consist of three periods: screening/enrollment phase up to 21 days from the day of injury to the day of randomization and operative intervention, an inpatient data collection period for 4 days postoperative, and then a follow-up period for 2-years postoperative (visits occurring at 16 weeks, 1 year, and 2 year) time points.
Reducing perioperative blood loss is critically important in the treatment of multiply injured combat casualties, and major blood loss during complex spine trauma surgery is a significant concern. Similar to previous studies in dental, cardiac, and total knee arthroplasty procedures, the use of topical tranexamic acid during complex combat related spine trauma surgery can be a cost-effective and simple route of administration to reduce blood loss, with no significant systemic effects. Patients would be expected to benefit immediately by decreasing blood loss and the need for blood transfusion postoperatively, thereby exposing them to less risk of transfusion reactions or disease transmission. This may also potentially decrease the rate of surgical site infection because patients have been found to have a significantly increased risk for surgical site infection after blood transfusion due to changes in the immune system, and by also decreasing the amount of blood that collects under the surgical wound, which serves as excellent medium for bacterial growth. The goal of the investigators study is to determine if the use of topical tranexamic acid (TXA) in the setting of complex spine surgery reduces blood loss, and subsequently reduces the rate of allogenic blood transfusion and surgical site infection.
57 studies on the registry are indexed under Spinal Injuries; 15 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 252 is above the median of 52 across 31 interventional studies indexed under Spinal Injuries.
Browse Spinal Injuries studies →Columbia University is the lead sponsor of 1,136 studies on the registry; 195 are open to participants now.
Of its 180 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 148 (82%) have results posted.
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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.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
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.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Subjects will receive tranexamic acid on the surgical wound.
Drug: Tranexamic Acid
Subjects will receive placebo (saline solution) on the surgical wound.
Drug: Placebo
3.0 grams of tranexamic acid will be poured in the surgical field and left in contact for five minutes. Subsequently, excess study solution will be suctioned away without touching the surrounding tissue surfaces and then the would closed without irrigation or manipulation. TXA solution will be prepared using a dose of 3 grams of tranexamic acid combined with 70 mL of sterile normal saline, for a total volume of 100 mL.
Also known as: Cyclokapron, TXA
Placebo will be poured in the surgical field and left in contact for five minutes. Subsequently, excess solution will be suctioned away without touching the surrounding tissue surfaces and then the would closed without irrigation or manipulation. The placebo solution will be 100 mL of sterile normal saline.
Also known as: Saline Solution
Maximal drop in systemic hemoglobin concentration during the postoperative period
Time frame: Patients will be followed through postoperative day 4
Reduction in the rate of surgical site infections
Defined by decreasing the allogenic transfusion rate (an independent risk factor for surgical site infections) as well as by decreasing the formation of postoperative hematoma (a nidus for infection).
Time frame: Duration of the hospital stay (an average of 2 weeks), first postoperative wound check visit
Number of complications
Defined as thromboembolic event, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE)
Time frame: Up to postoperative day 4
Systemic absorption of locally applied drug
Time frame: Baseline (pre-surgery), immediately after administration of the topical agent, 1 hour after administration
Patient assessed health-related quality of life score
This will be determined by a questionnaire/score
Time frame: Up to 2 years postoperation
Difference in costs for hospital stay between using tranexamic acid and placebo
Patient cost information will be gathered for the duration of the hospital stay
Time frame: Duration of the hospital stay (an average of 2 weeks)
Plan to share: Undecided
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Studies of the drug tested here: Tranexamic Acid