Postoperative Dexamethasone on Post-Cesarean Pain

Postoperative Dexamethasone on Post-Cesarean Pain in Patients Using Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)

Investigating if giving post-operative dexamethasone to patients with a history of opioid use disorder on medication assisted treatment during pregnancy improves their pain scores and decreases their opioid use after cesarean section.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cesarean Section Complications; Post-Cesarean Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Dexamethasone; Other: placebo

Detailed Description

For this study, the researchers are most interested in an option that would be able to be administered consistently (same time/same way): that labor nurses could give and without requiring the patient to have had an epidural placement. Further, Gabapentin, clonidine and ketamine are associated with CNS effects like sedation or confusion that could make health care providers less likely to be comfortable giving these women additional oxycodone due to possible worsened sedation or respiratory depression. Lastly, the researchers wanted to give a drug that both obstetricians and pediatricians were comfortable with from extensive use in our maternal population. Thus, a single administration IV dexamethasone was chosen for this study. Dexamethasone has been used as an adjunct for post-operative pain management in many types of surgeries. Although no large randomized trials exist, several small trials suggest an analgesic and opioid sparing effect of dexamethasone post-operatively for both pregnant and non-pregnanat patients; however these studies excluded patients on MAT

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 24
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Connecticut
    • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06510
      • Yale New Haven Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• English-speaking,
• History of opioid use disorder with current use of MAT during pregnancy,
• Scheduled for cesarean delivery for their current pregnancy for any indication [examples of elective c-section (decision made for c-section to be performed prior to onset of labor): fetal malpresentation, suspected macrosomia, prior c-section, abnormal placentation, patient preference],
• Negative toxicology screen upon admission to the hospital for their cesarean section, no prior administration of betamethasone for fetal lung maturity within 24h of their scheduled cesarean delivery

Exclusion Criteria:

• non-english speaking,
• screen positive for illicit substance(s) on their admission toxicology screen,
• require general anesthesia for their cesarean section due to maternal/fetal indication for non-anticipated urgency (thus no longer 'elective') or failure of adequate intra- operative pain control with spinal anesthesia,
• medical history including known cardiovascular disease, heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, uncontrolled gestational diabetes or uncontrolled pregestational diabetes, active GI bleed or untreated peptic ulcer,
• untreated infectious diseases including tuberculosis, systemic candida

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: patients receiving dexamethasone; subjects will receive a single administration of either 0.1 mg/kg of intravenous dexamethasone in 90mL of normal saline	Drug: Dexamethasone; subjects will receive a single administration of either 0.1 mg/kg of intravenous dexamethasone in 90mL of normal saline
Placebo Comparator: placebo; 100mL of normal saline (placebo) immediately upon the subjects' arrival to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) after leaving the operating room from their scheduled c-section	Other: placebo; 100mL of normal saline (placebo)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mean Pain Score	Pain scores via the standardly used and accepted Visual Analog Scale ranging from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).	24, 48, 72 and 96 hours post-op

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of Morphine Use	Comparison of total morphine dose equivalents used by the patient during this period will be examined. The total morphine dose equivalents will be calculated from the total narcotic dose and appropriate conversion (i.e. dilaudid dose to morphine dose equivalents). This will be calculated as a total daily dose for the hospital stay and an average dose/d over the entire hospital stay. These 2 separate calculations will be used because it is presumed that narcotic use will decrease with each day post-op. Calculating an average dose/d over the entire hospital stay will account for women who are discharged on different postoperative days.	24, 48 and 72 hours post-op

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Yale University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Victoria Wesevich, MD, Yale University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 20, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): April 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 22, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): August 26, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 16, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2025
• Last Verified: May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Antineoplastic Agents; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Antiemetics; Autonomic Agents; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Gastrointestinal Agents; Glucocorticoids; Hormones; Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists; Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; Dexamethasone
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2000025968; 000 (Other Identifier: YCTG)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: Yes