Cortical Modulation of Acute Post-thoracotomy Pain With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (CMAPTPtDCS)

March 27, 2018 updated by: Dusica Stamenkovic, Military Medical Academy, Belgrade, Serbia
The primary objective of this single center, prospective, randomized, double blind clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) combined with patient controlled analgesia (PCA) morphine, on intravenous morphine use for postoperative analgesia after thoracotomy. The intervention group will receive treatment with anodal tDCS, whereas the control group will receive sham stimulation.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

tDCS has been used for treatment of chronic pain states, but experience with the use of tDCS for treatment of acute postoperative pain is limited. tDCS has been used for postoperative analgesia after lumbar spine surgery, total knee arthroplasty and for post-procedural pain after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

This study investigates the effects of tDCS vs. sham stimulation combined with IV morphine PCA on postoperative morphine consumption for analgesia after thoracotomy for lung cancer.

Patients with malignant lung disease requiring thoracotomy will be randomly assigned to active stimulation or sham stimulation in a double-blind, sham-controlled, parallel design clinical trial. Each group will receive IV morphine PCA and tDCS vs. IV morphine PCA and sham stimulation daily, starting with arrival in the post-anesthesia care unit on the day of surgery and continuing for the first four postoperative days. Anodal tDCS with direct current at intensity 2 mA will be delivered for 20 minutes on five consecutive days, whereas sham stimulation will last for 30 seconds.

Morphine consumption, the number of analgesia demands, and pain intensity at rest, during movement and with cough will be recorded at predetermined time intervals as follows: After surgery, when VAS pain score at rest falls below 30 mm, tDCS will be applied. VAS pain will be measured immediately before the intervention (T0) and immediately after the intervention (T1), and then regularly every one hour for the four hours (Т2-Т5), and then every six hours (Т6-Т9) for five days.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

62

Phase

  • Phase 2

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

      • Belgrade, Serbia
        • Military Medical Academy, Department of Anesthesiology

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

18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Subject is willing and able to provide written informed consent,
  • Subject is 18-80 years old,
  • Subject needs thoracotomy for confirmed malignant lung disease,
  • Subject is extubated in the operating room

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subject is pregnant
  • Subject is in treatment for psychiatric disease
  • Subject is in treatment for neurological disease
  • Subject is in treatment for chronic pain
  • Subject has history of current or past alcohol or Street Drug abuse
  • Subject has received chemotherapy
  • Subject has history of previous thoracic or cardiac surgery
  • Subject is allergic to medications that will be used in the study
  • Subject has pacemaker or automatic implantable cardioverter/defibrillator
  • Subject has implants or any other devices in the head, the spinal cord or peripheral nerves
  • Subject has confirmed brain lesion, including tumor or metastasis

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: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active tDCS
Experimental: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Patients assigned to the active treatment group (n=31) will receive IV morphine followed by IV morphine PCA (IV morphine bolus 1 mg, lockout time 10 mins.), preceded by tDCS (20 minutes of 2 milliamperes (mA) anodal tDCS over the ipsilateral cortex for 5days/week).

Transcranial direct current stimulation. All eligible patients will be treated with patient-controlled IV morphine analgesia by PCA (PCA pump (CADD-Legacy PCA Pump, Deltec, Inc.) IV morphine bolus 1 mg, lockout time 10 mins.).

Device: wireless tDCS (StarStim, NeuroElectrics) non-invasive brain stimulation with a pair of electrodes with saline-soaked pads for delivery of direct current at intensity 2 mA for 20 mins.

Other Names:
  • tDCS

In Sham comparator group All eligible patients will be treated with patient-controlled IV morphine analgesia (PCA) (PCA pump (CADD-Legacy PCA Pump (Deltec, Inc.) morphine IV bolus 1 mg, lockout time 10 mins).

Device: wireless tDCS (StarStim, NeuroElectrics) non-invasive brain stimulation with a pair of electrodes with saline-soaked pads for delivery of direct current at intensity 2 mA for 30s at the beginning.

Sham Comparator: Sham tDCS
Sham Control Group: Patients assigned to the control group (n=31) will receive IV morphine followed by IV morphine PCA (IV morphine bolus 1 mg, lockout time 10 mins.), preceded by sham tDCS stimulation (30 sec over the ipsilateral cortex, 5 days/week).

In Sham comparator group All eligible patients will be treated with patient-controlled IV morphine analgesia (PCA) (PCA pump (CADD-Legacy PCA Pump (Deltec, Inc.) morphine IV bolus 1 mg, lockout time 10 mins).

Device: wireless tDCS (StarStim, NeuroElectrics) non-invasive brain stimulation with a pair of electrodes with saline-soaked pads for delivery of direct current at intensity 2 mA for 30s at the beginning.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Amount of morphine used for treatment of pain after thoracotomy in a group of patients receiving tDCS combined with intravenous morphine PCA compared with a group of patients receiving sham stimulation combined with intravenous morphine PCA.
Time Frame: Five days
Daily during five postoperative days
Five days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain scores measured using visual analogue scale (VAS) at rest, during movement and during cough in patients receiving tDCS combined and IV morphine PCA compared with patients receiving sham stimulation and IV morphine PCA.
Time Frame: Five days
After surgery, when VAS pain score at rest falls below 30 mm, tDCS will be applied. VAS pain will be measured immediately before the intervention (T0) and immediately after the intervention (T1), and then regularly every one hour for the four hours (Т2-Т5), and then every six hours (Т6-Т9) for five days.
Five days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Tihomir V Ilic, MD, PhD, Military Medical Academy
  • Principal Investigator: Dusica M Stamenkovic, MD, PhD, Military Medical Academy

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.

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, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 24, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 24, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

December 29, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 29, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 27, 2018

Last Verified

March 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

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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