Abstract
Background The Clinical Randomization of an Antifibrinolytic in Significant Hemorrhage-2 (CRASH-2) trial proved that tranexamic acid (TXA) is a time-dependent drug, having a better outcome if given within 1-hour of injury. In order to test this theory, studies have been conducted to examine the effect of TXA in the pre-hospital setting. We conducted a systematic search and meta-analysis to evaluate the role of TXA administration in the civilian pre-hospital setting on patient outcomes. Methods Embase, Medline, CINAHL and Cochrane were searched for randomized control trials (RCTs), retrospective, and prospective studies that examined the effect of TXA on patients in the pre-hospital setting versus a control group. Outcome measures were overall mortality rate and thromboembolic events. Two authors extracted the data independently. To appraise the included studies, we used the NIH quality assessment tool for cohort and cross-sectional studies. Results are presented as Risk Ratio (RR), a random-effect model was implemented, and the I2 test was used to assess heterogeneity. Results The search identified 1886 papers, but only five retrospective studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were selected for further analysis. A meta-analysis confirmed that TXA reduced the overall mortality rate (pooled risk ratio of 0.74 (95% CI 0.45, 1.25)) and thromboembolic events (risk ratio of 0.71 (95% CI 0.35, 1.44)). Conclusion The pooled effects for both outcome measures favour the administration of TXA in the pre-hospital setting, although none of the findings reported a significant effect. Our study highlights the need for additional high-quality evidence to validate the significance of these findings. Level of evidence Level III, therapeutic study.
Highlights
The Clinical Randomization of an Antifibrinolytic in Significant Hemorrhage-2 (CRASH-2) trial proved that tranexamic acid (TXA) is a time-dependent drug, having a better outcome if given within 1-hour of injury
In order to examine the overall effect of TXA and its complications with an appropriately powered sample size, and since there are studies that were published after the El-Menyar et al.,[26] we aimed to investigate the overall mortality rate and thromboembolic events in all of these studies
Our meta-analysis showed a 26% decrease in the overall mortality rate for the TXA group compared to the control group, the confidence interval of 0.45-1.25, means that the risk of mortality may range from 55% lower to 25% higher in the TXA group compared to the control group
Summary
The Clinical Randomization of an Antifibrinolytic in Significant Hemorrhage-2 (CRASH-2) trial proved that tranexamic acid (TXA) is a time-dependent drug, having a better outcome if given within 1-hour of injury. In order to test this theory, studies have been conducted to examine the effect of TXA in the pre-hospital setting. We conducted a systematic search and meta-analysis to evaluate the role of TXA administration in the civilian pre-hospital setting on patient outcomes. Methods: Embase, Medline, CINAHL and Cochrane were searched for randomized control trials (RCTs), retrospective, and prospective studies that examined the effect of TXA on patients in the pre-hospital setting versus a control group. Conclusion: The pooled effects for both outcome measures favour the administration of TXA in the pre-hospital setting, none of the findings reported a significant effect. Due to the similarity between how the human body reaches homeostasis when bleeding has occurred because of surgery or menstrual bleeding compared to when bleeding has occurred because of trauma, Roberts and colleagues initiated a large, double-blinded, randomized control trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of TXA on patients with traumatic bleeding.[7]
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have