ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03783494SIVOCUpdated Mar 24, 2026

Target-controlled Infusion With Propofol in the Emergency Department : a Prospective Study on 45 Adult Patients

A Phase 4 interventional study of Target control infusion with propofol in Joint Dislocation and Limb Fracture, sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-24.

Sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice · Phase 4, Interventional, and Supportive care

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
45
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Procedural sedation is an emergency medicine technique that provides a brief, deep sedation in order to perform very painful emergency emergent procedures such as displaced fracture or dislocated joints reduction. Propofol is recommended for this purpose, injected administered in slow IV bolus injections according to the technique known as manual titration. But despite this precaution, temporarily excessive sedation can happen, and a side effect can appear (arterial hypotension or respiratory depression). Target-controlled infusion (TCI) is an anesthesia technique that permits to obtain a precise constant and stable concentration of medication, boluses volumes of injection being calculated and delivered automatically by an electric syringe equipped with a software obedient to existing pharmacokinetic models. In the operating room, Ffor anesthetic induction, maintenance and awakening, respectively, in the operating room, the brain concentrations of propofol range respectively from 2 to 6 μg/mL, 2 to 4 μg/mL, and between 0.8 and 1.2 μg/mL, respectively. Since TCI has never been used in emergency departments (ED), the brain propofol concentrations which are necessary for sedation and awakening of the patient are not known and must be determined experimentally.

In this single-center, prospective, interventional study, safety and feasibility of TCI will be studied in one ED with the primary objective of determining the brain propofol concentrations necessary to reach the an optimal sedation in for patients with indications of sustaining very painful orthopedic emergency emergent procedures

Read the detailed description

Procedural sedation is an emergency medicine technique that provides a brief, deep sedation in order to perform very painful emergency emergent procedures such as displaced fracture or dislocated joints reduction. For this purpose, propofol is a remarkable sedative agent for its very short elimination half-life, antiemetic property and myorelaxant effects. It is recommended to inject administer it in slow IV boluses injections according to the technique known as manual titration, but despite this precaution, temporarily excessive sedation can happen, and a side effect appear (arterial hypotension or respiratory depression).

Target-controlled infusion (TCI) is an anesthesia technique that permits to obtain a precise constant and stable concentration of medication, boluses volumes of injection being calculated and delivered automatically by an electric syringe equipped with a software obedient to existing pharmacokinetic models.

The age, size and weight of the patient are filledentered, then the syringe delivers the volume which is necessary and sufficient to reach and maintain the target concentration chosen by the practitioner. For anesthetic induction in the operating room, the brain concentrations of propofol used range from 2 to 6 μg/mL, then the general anesthesia maintenance is obtained with 2 to 4 μg/mL, and the patient awakening usually happens between 0.8 and 1.2 μg/mL. Since TCI has never been used in emergency departments (ED), the brain propofol concentrations which are necessary for sedation and awakening of the patient are not known and must be determined experimentally.

In this single-center, prospective, interventional study, safety and feasibility of TCI will be studied in an ED with the primary objective of determining the brain propofol concentrations necessary to reach the an optimal sedation in for patients with indications ofsustaining very painful orthopedic emergency emergent procedures. As secondary objectives, we will study the characteristics of sedations obtained (level, delays, lengths); the Delays, lengths and levels of sedation obtained, overall delivered doses of propofol administered; the , nature, appearance delays and lengths of potential adverse events (AE) related to procedural sedation, particularly complications related to procedural sedation, and necessary interventions necessary to handle these AE., will be studied as secondary objectives

02

Conditions studied

  • Joint Dislocation
  • Limb Fracture

Keywords

  • ED
  • dislocation reduction
  • emergency department
  • TCI
  • Target-controlled infusion
  • sedation
  • fracture reduction
03

In context

Joint Dislocations

98 studies on the registry are indexed under Joint Dislocations; 21 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 45 is close to the median of 50 across 60 interventional studies indexed under Joint Dislocations.

Browse Joint Dislocations studies →

Lead sponsor

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice is the lead sponsor of 723 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
18 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

  • Age of 18 or more
  • Affiliated or beneficiary of a French health insurance system
  • Indication of procedural sedation, by the emergency department physician in the context of the management of for a patient with an orthopedic lesion requiring a potentially painful emergentcy therapeutic actionprocedure (reduction of a joint dislocation or realignment of a limb displaced fracture)
  • For women :

    • at childbearing age : effective (oral, intra-uterine device or condoms)
    • : amenorrhea for at least 12 month before the inclusion day
    • objective infertility (diagnosis or surgically)
  • Signed free or inclusion in the context of an emergency situation

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patient of more than 18 under legal protection or deprivation of liberty measures
  • Ongoing pregnancy or breastfeeding women
  • Patient with the incapacity to give his free , excepted if the incapacity is induced by the context of the emergency situation (inclusion in the context of an emergency situation)
  • Known to propofol or one of the , egg, sojasoya or peanuts
  • ASA comorbidity score of 4 or more
  • Heart, respiratory, renal or hepatic failure
  • Epilepsy
  • Lipid metabolism disorder
  • Mitochondrial disease
  • Hemodynamic instability, multiple traumatism
  • Elevated intracranial tension
  • Drug or alcohol intoxication
  • Simultaneous participation to another interventional study
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(5)

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.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Excipients

The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
45 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Target-controlled infusion (TCI)

    Target-controlled infusion (TCI) with propofol up to 5.5µg/ml during an anticipated average maximal time of 15 minutes

    Drug: Target control infusion with propofol

Interventions

  • DrugTarget control infusion with propofol

    Target control infusion with propofol for patients with indications of sustaining very painful orthopedic emergency emergent procedures

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Propofol brain concentration

    Propofol brain concentration necessary for the patient to reach a Ramsay score of 5 (optimal sedation) (Ce\_Ramsay5)

    Time frame: Between the beginning of sedation (T0) and the beginning of the orthopedic procedure (T_Ramsay5)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Delay between the beginning of sedation (T0) and the beginning of the orthopedic procedure (T_Ramsay5)

    the delay is the outcome, T\_Ramsay5 (up to an anticipated average maximal time of 15 minutes after T0)\]

    Time frame: the delay is the outcome, T_Ramsay5 (up to an anticipated average maximal time of 15 minutes after T0)]

  2. Propofol brain concentration when the patient spontaneously reopen his eyes (Ce_OuvertureYeux)

    Propofol brain concentration when the patient spontaneously reopen his eyes after the orthopedic procedure has been realized, the TCI syringe been switched off, and the immobilization been placed (Ce\_OuvertureYeux)

    Time frame: Time after T0 when the patient spontaneously reopen his eyes (up to an anticipated average maximal time of 30 minutes after T0)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Emergency Department
    Nice, 06000, France
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Lemoel F, Lemachatti A, Occelli C, Levraut J, Contenti J. Target-controlled infusion for emergency department procedural sedation: influence of age on required propofol concentration targets. Eur J Emerg Med. 2025 Jun 1;32(3):210-212. doi: 10.1097/MEJ.0000000000001220. Epub 2025 Apr 28. No abstract available. PubMed 40315032 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from May 2019 to primary completion in Oct 2020, 17 months.

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

Registered
Dec 19, 2018
First posted
Dec 21, 2018
StartActual
May 9, 2019
Primary completionActual
Oct 25, 2020
CompletionActual
Oct 25, 2020
Last update
Mar 24, 2026
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 Mar 24, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03783494
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 21, 2018
Start date
May 9, 2019
Primary completion
Oct 25, 2020
Completion
Oct 25, 2020
Last update
Mar 24, 2026

Study contacts

Fabien LEMOEL, PhD
principal investigator · Emergency Department, Universitary Hospital of Nice

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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