ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT03716375Updated Nov 6, 2018

Efficacy of Fibrinolytic Agents in Complicated Pleural Effusion

An interventional study of Intrapleural Medications in Complicated Pleural Effusion/ Empyema, sponsored by Beijing Children's Hospital. Status unknown. Open to participants aged 1 Month to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-11-06.

Sponsored by Beijing Children's Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Oct 2018), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
80
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
1 Month to 18 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

Intrapleural administration of fibrinolytic therapy, urokinase in parapneumonic effusion and empyema has been shown to decrease the need for surgical intervention and length of hospital stay. Pleural adhesions are easily formed in the early stages of empyema and the thickening of the pleural causes subsequent treatment difficulties. The goal of this study was to observe and compare the efficacy of treatment in empyema patients with urokinase and chest drainage or with chest drainage or with chest tube drainage alone so as to provide evidence for guiding clinical treatment.

Read the detailed description

Empyema, a collection of pus in the pleural space has been continuously associated with morbidity and mortality rates of 10-20%. Increase in the incidence of empyema with change in pattern of disease and the causative organism has demonstrated a challenge in the diagnosis and treatment. In the recent years many studies and clinical trials have been done among adults and children regarding the optimal empyema treatment and its efficacy and some are still in the process of further study. Appropriate treatment according to the three stages of empyema (i.e. exudative stage, fibropurulent stage and organizing stage) has constantly been under frequent research, finding which treatment is more effective (i.e. antibiotics, chest tube drainage, intrapleural fibrinolytics, VATS and decortication alone in combination) and when is the proper time for intervention. Intrapleural instillation of urokinase was initially described in 1994 on pediatric population and since then lots of studies have been reported. Therefore, the investigators conducted a randomized controlled study with relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria to assess the success rate of intrapleural urokinase administration among the patients with Complicated Pleural Effusion (CPE) / empyema comparing it with drainage alone. All case patients in this study received antibiotic empirically or with sensitivity when microbiological tests available, chest tube drainage along with urokinase intrapleural therapy or drainage alone for treatment of CPE/empyema.

Patients will be randomized into two groups: one is chest tube drainage and intrapleural fibrinolytic agent and another is chest tube drainage alone. The group with intrapleural fibrinolytic agent will receive urokinase 10ml of 1000 IU/ml in children aged less than or equal to 1 year or 40ml of 1000 IU/ml in children aged more than 1 year and the other group with drainage alone. The first instillation of the agent is done at the time of chest tube insertion of 12Fr or 14Fr tube, after instillation the chest tube is closed for 4 hours. The chest tube is then unclamped after 4 hours and connected to the suction system with pressure of -20cm H2O for 8 hours and the process is repeated every 12 hourly. The procedure was done for 3 consecutive days and was evaluated with daily chest X-ray and followed chest tube removal when the drainage was less than 40ml/day or according to the clinical and radiological response of patients with treatment.

The trial is being done for 12 months with 80 participants taken from one center, Beijing children´s Hospital.

The aim of this study is to evaluate difference among intrapleural urokinase as the initial treatment for children with pleural empyema against chest tube drainage alone. Length of hospital stay, number of days chest tube drainage, number of days of fever after tube insertion, complications such bleeding, chest pain will be compared between the two groups.

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Conditions studied

  • Complicated Pleural Effusion/ Empyema

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Keywords

  • Pleural empyema, urokinase
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In context

Empyema, Pleural

33 studies on the registry are indexed under Empyema, Pleural; 11 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 80 is close to the median of 77 across 26 interventional studies indexed under Empyema, Pleural.

Browse Empyema, Pleural studies →

Lead sponsor

Beijing Children's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 52 studies on the registry; 15 are open to participants now.

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

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
1 Month to 18 Years
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.

Pleural Empyema diagnostic criteria were based on the "Zhu Futang Practical Pediatrics" (the 7th Edition) and The American Thoracic Society consensus guidelines for management of empyema.

  • Frank pus at tapping or organism demonstrated on Gram stain or culture
  • Pleural fluid pH \< 7.2, glucose \< 60mg/dl, LDH>1000 IU/ml, protein > 3g/ml and white cells 15,000 cells/mm cube
  • Physical, radiological and laboratory signs accompanying the relevant clinical picture

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Previously healthy child with age between 1 month to 18 years
  • Admitted with diagnosis of Pleural empyema requiring chest tube insertion and fibrinolytics (as judged by the attending physician) with the following criteria:

I. Pneumonia with pleural empyema based on chest ultrasound and CT scan. II. Need for further intervention based on clinical criteria (persistent fever despite antibiotics for at least 48 hours, significant respiratory distress, tachypnea or hypoxia as a result of pleural empyema.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Subject will be excluded if she or he has one of the followings:

  • Empyema as result of tuberculosis, fungus or noninfectious causes (e.g. )
  • Known coagulation impairment
  • Suspected allergy to urokinase
  • Child has already undergone drainage procedure or drug was used in 30 days (e.g.

chest tube or VATS

  • Chronic lung diseases or other chronic illnesses (e.g. Immunodeficiency, neurological impairment possible)
  • Significant thoracic trauma in last 2 months
  • Severe arterial hypertension
  • Presence of Pneumothorax before treatment (i.e. bronchopleural fistula)
  • Pregnancy
  • Breast feeding
  • Poor compliance
  • in the presence of fibrinolytic agent
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(2)

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.

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.

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.

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Study design

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

Study arms

  • Experimental
    use of fibrinolytic agent

    Chest tube drainage with intrapleural urokinase instillation 1000 IU/ml

    Drug: Intrapleural Medications

  • No intervention
    no use of any drug

    Chest tube drainage

Interventions

  • DrugIntrapleural Medications

    urokinase

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Length of hospital stay

    Time frame: 2 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Days of fever after chest tube insertion

    Time frame: 3 to 4 days

  2. Duration of drainage

    Time frame: 2 weeks

  3. Complications

    number of participants changed to open thoracotomy

    Time frame: 2weeks

  4. Failure rate

    Time frame: 2weeks

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Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

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References and documents

Publications

  • Shirota C, Uchida H. Initial treatment of septated parapneumonic empyema with drainage plus fibrinolytic agents is equally effective as video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and is suitable as first-line therapy. Transl Pediatr. 2015 Jan;4(1):41-4. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2224-4336.2015.02.01. PubMed 26835359 ↗
  • Stefanutti G, Ghirardo V, Barbato A, Gamba P. Evaluation of a pediatric protocol of intrapleural urokinase for pleural empyema: a prospective study. Surgery. 2010 Sep;148(3):589-94. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2010.01.010. Epub 2010 Mar 20. PubMed 20304453 ↗
  • Walker W, Wheeler R, Legg J. Update on the causes, investigation and management of empyema in childhood. Arch Dis Child. 2011 May;96(5):482-8. doi: 10.1136/adc.2009.165357. Epub 2010 Aug 24. PubMed 20736395 ↗
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Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Nov 2018; primary completion for Apr 2019, 5 months later.

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

Registered
Oct 7, 2018
First posted
Oct 23, 2018
StartEst.
Nov 2018
Primary completionEst.
Apr 30, 2019
CompletionEst.
Apr 30, 2020
Last update
Nov 6, 2018
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 Nov 6, 2018, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03716375
Lead sponsor
Beijing Children's Hospital
Responsible party
Baoping XU (Chief of Respiratory Department, Beijing Children's Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 23, 2018
Start date
Nov 2018 (estimated)
Primary completion
Apr 30, 2019 (estimated)
Completion
Apr 30, 2020 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 6, 2018

Study contacts

Xu Baoping, MD, PhD
Contact
xubaopingbch@163.com
+861059616308
Xu Baoping, MD, PhD
principal investigator · Beijings Children´s Hospital of Capital Medical University, China

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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