Effects of a high-dose 24-h infusion of tranexamic acid on death and thromboembolic events in patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding (HALT-IT): an international randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleed...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Lancet (British edition) Vol. 395; no. 10241; pp. 1927 - 1936
Main Authors:	Afolabi, Adefemi, Kayani, Aasia, Simmons, Jonathan, Soomro, Majid, Veitch, Andrew, Henry, David, Gray, Richard, Edwards, Phil, Manno, Daniela, Austin, Emma, Bal, Kiran, Benyahia, Myriam, Cargill, Madeleine, Gil Onandia, Julio, Kostrov, Sergey, Needham, Kelly, Pearson, Daniel, Ranopa, Laura, Roukas, Chris, Thayne, Andrew, Mateescu, Radu Bogdan, Carpio, Racquel, Maguire, Holly, Thi, Aye-Aye, Jacques, Nicola, Lambe, Christine, Al-Idari, Romaih, Hardy, Elaine, Swann, Carly, Grahamslaw, Julia, Skene, Imogen, Marks, Daniel, Ryu, Jung, Pott, Jason, Beer, Sally, Appelboam, Andrew, Thomas, Martin, Boger, Philip, Comer, Rachel, Everett, Simon, Fazakerley, Ruth, Rutter, Matthew, Moreton, Sarah, Boyle, Adrian, Squire, Rosalyn, Wakeford, Sue, Bartram, Thomas, Wilson, Sarah, Brown, Andrew, Greenaway, John, Fowler, Susan, Barnes, Simon, Orugun, Olu, Allison, Andrew, Hood, Stephen, Qamar, Muhammad, Hameed, Tehseen, Shafi, Wajahat, Chang, Adil, Ali, Zeeshan, Mushir, Aiman, Sattar, Sadaf, Aslam, Sharmeen, Fatima, Nighat, Khalid, Mohammad, Umar, Muhammad, Akhter, Tayyab, Khan, Javaria, Reki, Maqbool, Kumar, Ameet, Ahmed, Sohaib, Channa, Saleh, Aman, Adeeqa, Shaikh, Mouzam, Rizvi, Tahir, Irfan, Adeela, Husain, Aamir, Ul Haq, Mansoor, Ukwu, Nancy, Eghaghe, Enadeghe, Adekoya, Adeleke, Tade, Adedayo Oluyomi, Odeghe, Emuobor, Lesi, Olufunmilayo, Samaila, Adamu, Ashoush, Omar, Saiid, Mostafa, Helmy, Ashraf, Saafan, Saafan, Farid, Shaik, Mafauzy, Masykurin, Hisyam, Mohammad, Joon, Lee, Tomadze, Gia, Mateescu, Bogdan, Busuioc, Bogdan, Cotirlet, Adrian, K.C., Anuj, Al Anazi, Marzouqah, Al Balkhi, Areej
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Elsevier Ltd 20-06-2020 Elsevier B.V Elsevier Limited Elsevier
Subjects:	Acids Acute Disease Adult Aged Analysis Antifibrinolytic agents Antifibrinolytic Agents - administration & dosage Antifibrinolytic Agents - adverse effects Antifibrinolytic Agents - therapeutic use Bleeding Blood products Care and treatment Case-Control Studies Cerebral infarction Chloride Chlorides Clinical trials Data collection Death Dichloropropane Dosage and administration Double-Blind Method Double-blind studies Drug therapy Embolism Fatalities Female Gastrointestinal bleeding Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage - drug therapy Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage - mortality Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage - prevention & control Health risk assessment Humans Injections, Intravenous Intravenous administration Male Medical research Medicine, Experimental Middle Aged Mortality Myocardial infarction Myocardial Infarction - epidemiology Odds Ratio Outcome Assessment, Health Care Patients Placebos - administration & dosage Predictive Value of Tests Pulmonary embolism Pulmonary Embolism - epidemiology Randomization Sodium chloride Stroke - epidemiology Surgery Systematic review Technology assessment Thromboembolism Thromboembolism - chemically induced Thromboembolism - epidemiology Thrombosis Tranexamic acid Tranexamic Acid - administration & dosage Tranexamic Acid - adverse effects Tranexamic Acid - therapeutic use Trauma Venous Thrombosis - epidemiology United Kingdom > UK Nigeria
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and reduces death due to bleeding in patients with trauma. Meta-analyses of small trials show that tranexamic acid might decrease deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. We did an international, multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 164 hospitals in 15 countries. Patients were enrolled if the responsible clinician was uncertain whether to use tranexamic acid, were aged above the minimum age considered an adult in their country (either aged 16 years and older or aged 18 years and older), and had significant (defined as at risk of bleeding to death) upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Patients were randomly assigned by selection of a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients received either a loading dose of 1 g tranexamic acid, which was added to 100 mL infusion bag of 0·9% sodium chloride and infused by slow intravenous injection over 10 min, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 g tranexamic acid added to 1 L of any isotonic intravenous solution and infused at 125 mg/h for 24 h, or placebo (sodium chloride 0·9%). Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation; analysis excluded patients who received neither dose of the allocated treatment and those for whom outcome data on death were unavailable. This trial was registered with Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN11225767, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01658124. Between July 4, 2013, and June 21, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 009 patients to receive tranexamic acid (5994, 49·9%) or matching placebo (6015, 50·1%), of whom 11 952 (99·5%) received the first dose of the allocated treatment. Death due to bleeding within 5 days of randomisation occurred in 222 (4%) of 5956 patients in the tranexamic acid group and in 226 (4%) of 5981 patients in the placebo group (risk ratio [RR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·82–1·18). Arterial thromboembolic events (myocardial infarction or stroke) were similar in the tranexamic acid group and placebo group (42 [0·7%] of 5952 vs 46 [0·8%] of 5977; 0·92; 0·60 to 1·39). Venous thromboembolic events (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) were higher in tranexamic acid group than in the placebo group (48 [0·8%] of 5952 vs 26 [0·4%] of 5977; RR 1·85; 95% CI 1·15 to 2·98). We found that tranexamic acid did not reduce death from gastrointestinal bleeding. On the basis of our results, tranexamic acid should not be used for the treatment of gastrointestinal bleeding outside the context of a randomised trial. UK National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme.
Bibliography:	Members listed at end of paper
ISSN:	0140-6736 1474-547X
DOI:	10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30848-5