Effect of Out-of-Hospital Tranexamic Acid vs Placebo on 6-Month Functional Neurologic Outcomes in Patients With Moderate or Severe Traumatic Brain Injury
RCT (n=1,063) found that, among patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, out-of-hospital tranexamic acid administration within 2 hours of injury vs placebo did not significantly improve 6-month neurologic outcome as measured by the Glasgow Outcome Scale.
Source:
Journal of the American Medical Association
SPS commentary:
A commentary suggests that this new study provides important data about the use of tranexamic acid in patients with isolated moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and important lessons for the design of future out-of-hospital TBI research. These findings, combined with those of previous studies, provide no definitive evidence to support the routine use of out-of-hospital tranexamic acid for patients with moderate or severe TBI. However, given the clear need to find treatments that improve TBI outcomes, these results provide support for a large effectiveness trial with optimized dosing protocols, a mortality end point, and specific focus on the TBI severity cohorts that are most likely to benefit.