"Death Rattle" - A Double Blind, Randomly Controlled, Crossover Trial

July 3, 2012 updated by: Pesach Shvartzman, Soroka University Medical Center

Dying patients are often unable to clear secretions from their large airways, resulting in noisy breathing usually described as "death rattle." While there is no evidence that patients find this condition disturbing, the noises may be disturbing to the patient's visitors and caregivers who may fear that the patient is choking to death.

In Israel none of the pharmaceutical drugs listed in the literature exist. Thus, Atropine drops which have been noted in the literature as being used, though according to our knowledge no evidence of clinical trials using sublingual Atropine were conducted.

The study is designed as a randomly controlled, double blind crossover trial. The patient will serve as control for himself, as crossover between placebo and drug (randomly chosen) will take place. The administrator of the drug will be blinded to the medication, each time randomly beginning with a different drug (placebo or Atropine).

We will evaluate Atropine Sulphate 1% ophthalmic drops effect on 33 patients using a noise score scale of 0-3. Noise scores will be taken at the start; 30 min after drug/placebo administration and every hour thereafter. After 4-hours crossover will take place and evaluation will follow the same protocol.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

2

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Israel
      • Beer-Sheva, Israel, 653
        • Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sial Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • : Patients belonging to Home Palliative Care Unit of Clalit Health Services - Southern District, and the Oncology Department of Soroka University Medical Center and suffering from "death rattle" will be recruited for the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Double

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Noise Level
Time Frame: 8 hours
30 min after drug administration; and hourly after the initial administration. if needed a repeat dose will be given and the noise score will be evaluated at 30 min; and hourly thereafter. The repeat dose will be left to the nurses' discretion if they thought the rattle to be unacceptable.
8 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Soroka University Medical Center

Collaborators

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Pesach Shvartzman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 1, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 1, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

May 3, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 4, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 3, 2012

Last Verified

July 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SOR416506CTIL

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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