So an incredibly important paper, CRASH-3 has just been published in the Lancet, which looks at the treatment of head injuries with Tranexamic Acid (TXA).
TXA has been shown to save lives in trauma patients at the risk of major haemorrhage, with the notable exclusion of those with head injuries, CRASH-2. TXA has been shown to save lives in those with post parts haemorrhage, WOMAN trial. Time to treatment with TXA has been shown to be hugely influential in it's ability to decrease blood loss and save lives. So has TXA now been shown to save lives in head injuries?
In this episode we run through the paper and are lucky enough to have an interview with the lead author, Professor Ian Roberts.
Have a listen, read the paper and as always we’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you have on the website and via twitter, and take a look at the references below to draw your own conclusions.
Enjoy!
Simon, Rob & James
References
The CRASH-2 trial: a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of the effects of tranexamic acid on death, vascular occlusive events and transfusion requirement in bleeding trauma patients.Roberts I. Health Technol Assess. 2013
CRASH-2;The Bottom Line
Effectof earlytranexamic acidadministrationon mortality, hysterectomy, and othermorbiditiesin womenwith post-partum haemorrhage(WOMAN): an international, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlledtrial. WOMANTrialCollaborators.Lancet 2017
WOMAN Trial;The Bottom Line
Effect of treatment delay on the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytics in acute severe haemorrhage: a meta-analysis of individual patient-level data from 40 138 bleeding patients.Gayet-Ageron A. Lancet. 2017
Tranexamic Acid - The Mechanism of Action;Video
Tranexamic Acid, Time to Treatment;The Resus Room
Does earlier TXA save lives?St Emlyns
TXA podcast; PHEMCAST
About CRASH-3; LSHTM
Welcome to October '19 papers podcast.
You can't go far without the topic of TXA as a treatment for anything that bleeds being mentioned! With the publication of CRASH-2 and the WOMAN trial practice has crept such that administration in gastro-intestinal bleeding is seen fairly frequently. However, current guidelines don't recommend the use of TXA in GI bleeding, so this month we have a look at a systematic review which looks to answer whether it's administration is supported by the evidence, before we get a definitive answer from the HALT-IT trial.
Next up, following on from our Burns Roadside to Resus podcast, we take a look at a paper that quantifies the potential benefit of thorough first aid in the management of paediatric burns, a really key paper on the topic, with really powerful results.
Finally, we all know that Sepsis is a core area of our practice, but at times it may feel like the attention on those that could possibly have severe sepsis displaces the ability to care for other critically ill patients. We take a look at a great paper developing a prehospital screening tool to focus in on those patients that really do require time-critical care.
Enjoy!
Simon & Rob