Melatonin for Prevention of Post- Operative Delirium Pilot Study Protocol

September 15, 2016 updated by: Muralidhara Rao, Loyola University

To test the efficacy of melatonin compared to placebo in preventing post-operative delirium and reduction in intensity or duration of delirium in individuals 65 years of age and older who undergo orthopedic surgery after low energy lower extremity fractures (LELEF).

Biomarkers may play important roles in the detection, prediction and management of delirium especially in frail elderly individuals. Predictive biomarkers may help characterize an individual's susceptibility to delirium and thereby help specialized treatment, care and management of such individuals during their hospitalization. They may also help predict treatment response to a specific modality and help in selection of such modality. Recent studies performed in the UK and published in 2011 have measured plasma cholinesterase activity and determined that these levels were lower in patients who developed delirium compared with remaining subjects. Other studies have indicated that CRP may also have a role in delirium prediction as they have found that CRP measured on admission to an ICU had predictable changes that occurred within 24 hours that in turn were predictors of delirium. One the aims of the study is to compare the predictive and treatment response values of groups of biomarkers that have been hypothesized to be of predictive value.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Surgery causes oxidative stress on the brain9 leading to inflammation. Post-operative delirium has been linked with inflammation in the brain. Delirium has been hypothesized to be a central nervous system response to systemic inflammation during a state of blood-brain barrier (BBB) compromise.

Studies have shown a rise of inflammatory cytokines and fall of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Vice-versa, external cytokine administration has been shown to lead to delirium. Melatonin is known for its strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, this should account for its preventive properties in post-operative delirium. It has also been hypothesized that post-operative delirium in elderly is caused by circadian rhythm disturbances secondary to a relative lack of melatonin.

Keeping in mind the above two possible pathophysiology for delirium, investigators are expecting melatonin supplementation should be able to reduce the incidence of post-operative delirium particularly in elderly population.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Phase 4

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

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Maywood, Illinois, United States, 60153
        • Loyola University Medical Center

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

65 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients 65 years of age and older undergoing Low Energy Lower Extremity Fractures (LELEF) surgery
  • Presence of an LELEF fracture
  • Low Energy (e.g., falls from standing height, falls from sitting, etc.).

  • Operative Fractures:

    • Pathologic femur and tibia fractures
    • Femoral neck fractures
    • Pertroch: including intertroch, subtroch fractures
    • Femoral shaft
    • Supracondylar femur fractures
    • Periprosthetic fractures around total hip and total knee arthroplasties
    • Tibial plateau fractures
    • Proximal Tibia Fractures
    • Tibial Shaft Fractures
    • Distal 1/3 tibia fractures
    • Ankle Fractures that are admitted

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with previous adverse reaction or side-effects to melatonin
  • Inability or unwillingness of individual or legal guardian/representative to give written informed consent.
  • Inability to communicate in English
  • Patients with a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score of below 7 will not be included in the study because of their inability to give informed consent at that stage. This score is approximately 2 standard deviation below average score for Alzheimer's Dementia.
  • Participants who are unable to give consent or communicate well in English will not be enrolled

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Individuals who are randomized to the control arm will receive liquid placebo sublingually 60-90 minutes prior to surgery.
Drug: Placebo
10 mg liquid placebo at 7 pm for 1 week
Active Comparator: Melatonin
Individuals who are randomized to the treatment arm will receive 10 mg liquid IR-SL melatonin 60-90 minutes prior to surgery
Drug: Melatonin
10 mg liquid Melatonin IR-SL at 7 pm for 1 week

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Delirium assessment
Time Frame: 1 Week
The Delirium Rating Scale Revised (DRS-R98) will be given to all patients every day for seven days. Investigators will compare the scores recorded on day 7 between those receiving melatonin versus those receiving placebo controlling for their baseline performance.
1 Week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Hospital stay
Time Frame: 1 Week
Length of hospital stay will be recorded for all patients and compared between the two treatment groups (i.e., those receiving melatonin and those receiving placebo).
1 Week

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Loyola University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Muralidhara S Rao, MD, Loyola University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

June 1, 2018

Study Completion (Anticipated)

June 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 13, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

September 16, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 16, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2016

Last Verified

September 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 206981

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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