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CompletedNCT04607551PRONECMOUpdated Mar 1, 2023

PRONing to Facilitate Weaning From ECMO in Patients With Refractory Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

An interventional study of Prone positionning and Supine position in ARDS, sponsored by Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-03-01.

Sponsored by Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
170
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

ECMO has emerged as a promising intervention that may provide more efficacious supportive care to patients with refractory severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The largest randomized trial of ECMO for severe forms of ARDS was recently published and demonstrated no significant benefit from early initiation of ECMO with respect to 60-day mortality, when compared with a strategy of conventional mechanical ventilation (MV) (ref EOLIA). However, a rescue ECMO option was used by 28% of the controls, which is likely to have diluted the potential positive effect of ECMO. One may argue that a less restrictive primary endpoint, such as death or rescue ECMO, would have yielded positive findings.

Meanwhile, improvements in technology have made ECMO safer and easier to use, allowing for the potential of more widespread application in patients with ARDS. VV-ECMO can be used as a life-saving rescue therapy in patients with ARDS when MV cannot maintain adequate oxygenation or CO2 elimination. Alternatively, VV-ECMO may be used in patients who remain hypoxemic during MV (i.e., PaO2/FiO2\<80 mmHg) despite optimization of MV (including the application of high levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), neuromuscular blockers, and prone positioning) and allow "lung rest" by lowering airway pressures and tidal volume to ameliorate ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI).

Prone positioning (PP) has been used for more than 30 years in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure and in particular with ARDS. Initially, PP in ARDS patients was proposed as an efficient mean to improve oxygenation, sometimes dramatically, in a large number of patients. In addition, it is now clear, and data are still accumulating, that PP is also able to prevent VILI which is as important as maintaining safe gas exchange in mechanical ventilation. Therefore, PP is a strategy that covers the two major goals of ventilator support in ARDS patients, maintaining safe oxygenation and preventing VILI and reducing mortality at the end. This latter objective makes sense on ECMO as one of the main objective of this device is to markedly reduce VILI by resting the lung.

Considering that PP is a valuable and safe therapy to reduce VILI, its combination with ECMO could enhance VILI prevention. In recent preliminary studies, it was reported that the combination of VV-ECMO and PP was associated with a dramatic improvement in oxygenation, in pulmonary and thoracic compliance and in chest X-ray findings. It may thus facilitate the weaning of ECMO and can be performed without compromising the safety of the patients. Lung recruitment and improvement in ventilation/perfusion mismatch on prone position may both contribute to improve oxygenation. PP may therefore be efficient to hasten the weaning of VV-ECMO when atelectasis and ventilation/perfusion mismatch occur under ultra-protective ventilation even in patients in whom pre-ECMO PP failed. In addition, it could also enhance ventilator induced lung injury prevention on ECMO.

02

Conditions studied

03

In context

Respiratory Distress Syndrome

1,597 studies on the registry are indexed under Respiratory Distress Syndrome; 312 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 170 is above the median of 60 across 961 interventional studies indexed under Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Browse Respiratory Distress Syndrome studies →

Lead sponsor

Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris is the lead sponsor of 3,505 studies on the registry; 1,006 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Severe ARDS refractory to conventional therapy placed on VV-ECMO support in the preceding 48h.
  2. Obtain informed consent from a close relative or surrogate. According to the specifications of emergency consent, randomization without the close relative or surrogate consent could be performed.

    Close relative/surrogate/family consent will be asked as soon as possible. The patient will be asked to give his/her consent for the continuation of the trial when his/her condition will allow.

  3. Social security registration

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Age \<18 and >75
  2. Pregnancy and breastfeeding woman
  3. Initiation of VV-ECMO >48 h
  4. Resuscitation >10 minutes before ECMO
  5. Irreversible neurological pathology
  6. End-stage chronic lung disease
  7. ARDS secondary to an abdominal surgery
  8. Contraindications for PP
  9. Irreversible ARDS with no hope for lung function recovery
  10. Patient moribund on the day of randomization, SAPS II >90
  11. Liver cirrhosis (Child B or C)
  12. Chronic renal failure requiring hemodialysis
  13. Lung transplantation
  14. Burns on more than 20 % of the body surface
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
170 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Prone positionning

    Procedure: Prone positionning

  • Active comparator
    Supine position

    Procedure: Supine position

Interventions

  • ProcedureProne positionning

    4 to 5 persons required for the procedure, one of them being dedicated to the management of the head of the patient, the endotracheal tube, the jugular ECMO cannula and the ventilator lines and another dedicated to the femoral ECMO cannula. The person at the head of the bed will coordinate the steps. The other persons will stand at each side of the bed. The direction of the rotation will be decided giving priority to the side of the central venous lines. The length of vascular and ventilator lines will be checked for appropriateness, the endotracheal tube and gastric tube will be secured, and the patient's knees, forehead, chest, and iliac crests will be protected using adhesive pads. The patient will be then moved along the horizontal plane to the opposite side of the bed selected for the direction of rotation. Patients will be proned at least four times during the first days on ECMO. Each prone session will stand for at least 16 hours

  • ProcedureSupine position

    Patients assigned to supine will remain in a semi-recumbent position.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Time to successful ECMO weaning within the 60 days following randomization

    ECMO weaning will be considered successful only if the patient survives without ECMO, or lung transplantation 30 days after ECMO removal. Thus all ECMO weaning from randomization to 60 days after randomization will be considered, and the qualification for successful ECMO weaning will need 30 days of follow-up after ECMO removal (thus until day 90 after randomization for an ECMO weaning performed on day 60 after randomization). Patients still under ECMO 60 days after randomization will be censored. A protocolized management regarding weaning of VV-ECMO will be applied to both groups The planned analysis will model the risk of successful ECMO ablation in the presence of competing risk (death and weaning failure).

    Time frame: Day 60

Secondary outcomes

  1. Mortality

    Time frame: Day 7, Day 14, Day 30, Day 60, Day 90

  2. Total duration of ECMO support

    Time frame: Between inclusion visit (day 1) and day 60, Between inclusion visit and day 90,

  3. Number of ECMO-free days

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60/Day 90

  4. Duration of ICU stay

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60/Day 90

  5. Duration of hospitalization

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60/Day 90

  6. Time to improvement in respiratory respiratory system compliance

    Time frame: Through study completion

  7. Time to get a respiratory system compliance > 30 mL/cmH2O

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60/Day 90

  8. Number of days with organ failure

    defined by SOFA score

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  9. Number of days alive without organ failure

    defined by SOFA score

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  10. Number of ventilator assist pneumonia, bacteriemia, and cannula infection episodes

    Time frame: Through study completion

  11. Number of days with hemodynamic support with catecholamines

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  12. Number of days alive without hemodynamic support with catecholamines

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  13. Number of days with mechanical ventilation

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  14. Number of days alive without mechanical ventilation

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  15. Acute core pulmonale diagnosis

    by echocardiography

    Time frame: Between day 1 and D60

  16. Need for VA ECMO

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60/Day 90

  17. Incidence of intervention side effects

    (accidental decannulation, non-scheduled extubation during the procedure, hemoptysis, endotracheal tube obstruction, cardiac arrest, pressure sore, and death

    Time frame: Between day 1 and Day 60

  18. Occurrence of refractory hypoxemia on ECMO

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 3 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Hôpital Pitié Salpêtrière
    Paris, 75013, France
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 1, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04607551
Lead sponsor
Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Oct 29, 2020
Start date
Mar 3, 2021
Primary completion
Mar 7, 2022
Completion
Dec 31, 2022
Last update
Mar 1, 2023

Oversight

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

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