Tranexamic Acid Usage in Bilateral Mastectomy to Reduce Post-surgical Drainage

February 19, 2025 updated by: Northwestern University
Tranexamic acid (TxA) is a drug that was approved by the FDA in 1986. It is an antifibrinolytic drug - this means that it is used to promote blood clotting by preventing the breakdown of blood clots that the participant's body naturally forms. TxA is very commonly used to control bleeding in a variety of surgeries, such as orthopedic and gynecologic procedures, and is available in both the injectable (delivering the drug through the veins) and oral forms. However, its use is still not commonplace in the setting of elective breast surgery, because it hasn't been extensively studied in this field. Because it is not currently FDA-approved for use in elective breast surgery, this would make the drug "investigational" for this study. Because of its current use in other fields, TxA seems to have a great deal of potential in reducing the amount of post-operative time that breast drains need to be kept in place, the frequency of adverse events during wound healing such as bleeding and fluid accumulation, and overall fluid drainage amount. This would serve to improve the overall process of post-operative healing following a mastectomy procedure. Currently, the use of TxA is approved through the injectable route at Northwestern, but it is not approved for administration by the topical route. Previous studies have shown that TxA given through the topical route of administration in breast reduction surgery reduced post-surgical drainage and fluid accumulation. In this study, the use of 3% (3 grams of TxA in 100 ml of saline) TxA through the topical route by applying it to the breast wound of one breast as a direct fluid irrigation will be investigated. This will be done as a fluid wash, where the TxA will be in a syringe, and just before wound closure the TxA will be sprayed onto the wound site. The other breast will undergo the same procedure, but will receive normal saline solution instead of TxA. The procedure of interest here is a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy, which is a mastectomy that is performed to prevent the occurrence of breast cancer. The purpose of this study is to test whether applying TxA topically during wound closure in mastectomy procedures will affect the quantity of fluid accumulation and bleeding, and the amount of time that post-operative drains need to be kept in place.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States. Mastectomy procedures are often performed to treat breast cancer, and may either be done prophylactically or therapeutically. Women with either a strong family history of breast cancer and/or a positive mutation for the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 or BRCA2 may elect to undergo a prophylactic mastectomy, in which one or both breasts are removed. Such procedures have been found to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in these individuals by 90-95%. This process often begins with an individual who has a family member or relative that has tested positive for a BRCA mutation or developed breast cancer. Female family members may then choose to undergo screening to identify whether they carry such a genetic mutation themselves, and if any family member screens positive for the mutation, one may solicit a plastic surgeon for the mastectomy to prevent future breast cancer occurrence. Additionally, women may elect to undergo a mastectomy after the development of cancer in one or both breasts. In the event of cancer development in one breast, patients may choose to undergo a bilateral mastectomy therapeutically in the breast with cancer and prophylactically in the breast without cancer to prevent future cancer development in the non-cancer breast.

During mastectomy procedures, tumescent solution is commonly used for regional anesthesia and reduction of blood loss through potent vasoconstriction. Tumescent solution is an infiltration solution (a formula consisting of epinephrine, lidocaine in Lactated Ringer's solution diluted in saline) that usually contains 0.05% lidocaine and 1:1,000,000 epinephrine. While there are several studies investigating various modified recipe of tumescent solution during bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy (BRRM) with the goal of reducing perioperative bleeding, the results remain inconsistent.

In this study, the use of TxA in bilateral mastectomy in a cohort of female patients will be investigated. TxA is an anti-fibrinolytic agent commonly used to control trauma and menstrual bleeding, as well as in routine surgical procedures. In prior studies, TxA has been shown to reduce mortality due to adverse bleeding events by one-third1. In addition, TxA mechanism-of-action has been shown to exert an immunomodulatory effect that results in reduced infection rates independent of its effect on reduction of blood loss4. Because of this, TxA has become an attractive agent for use in surgery to control bleeding during procedures and post-surgical fluid accumulation at the wound site. However, its use is still not commonplace in the setting of elective breast surgery.

During breast surgery, agents such as tumescent solution are commonly administered to reduce peri-operative bleeding and post-surgical blood and fluid accumulation. Following surgery, drainage systems such as Jackson-Pratt drains are placed within the breast to allow for fluid removal and prevent the incidence of infection, hematoma, and seroma. To date, few studies have investigated the perioperative use of TxA during breast surgery to reduce post-surgical fluid drainage and reduction of corresponding adverse events - as a result, the investigators believe that there is a great deal of potential in this investigation to inform future surgical practices in this field and to improve patients' quality-of-life. In this study, the investigators will conduct a prospective study of female patients undergoing bilateral mastectomy to determine the effect of TxA administration in reducing post-surgical breast drainage and indwelling time and preventing adverse fluid accumulation-related events.

Study Type

Interventional

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

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Northwestern Memorial Hospital
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60657
        • AMITA Health Saint Joseph Chicago

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

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Female aged 18 years or older
  • Scheduled or plans to schedule a bilateral mastectomy
  • Able to understand informed consent and sign it voluntarily

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Male without breasts
  • Females who have previously undergone either unilateral or bilateral mastectomy as they do not have breasts on which the drug could be tested
  • Patients with a hypersensitive or allergic reaction to TxA
  • Patients with an active clotting disorder
  • Patients with a subarachnoid hemorrhage within the past 3 months of screening
  • Patients on chronic, extracorporeal renal replacement therapy

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Experimental Breast
Participants will receive 50 ml of TxA and gentamicin to the assigned experimental breast.
Drug: Tranexamic acid
The intervention is a topical application of 50 cc's of 3% tranexamic acid. In the operating room, TxA irrigation will be administered following gentamicin irrigation. TxA irrigation solution will be the last irrigation used prior to wound closure in order to assure maximum benefit derived from TxA administration, if any.
Placebo Comparator: Control Breast
Participants will receive a standard irrigation of 50 ml of 0.9% NS and gentamicin to the assigned control breast.
Drug: Normal saline
The intervention is a topical application of 50 cc's of 3% tranexamic acid. In the operating room, control normal saline (NS) irrigation will be administered following gentamicin irrigation. NS irrigation solution will be the last irrigation used prior to wound closure in order to assure maximum benefit derived from TxA administration, if any.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Drain output
Time Frame: Approximately 1 month post-operatively
The primary clinical endpoints in this study are the post-surgical drainage volume and drainage system indwelling time. Each drainage system will be removed post-operatively when the drainage amount is equal to or less than 30cc's for two consecutive 24-hour periods. Additionally, observations will be made regarding the post-surgical fluid accumulation, such as hematoma and seroma formation, and characterization of the fluid (bloody, purulent, serosanguinous, etc.)
Approximately 1 month post-operatively

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Safety evaluation
Time Frame: Approximately 1 month post-operatively
The primary safety endpoint will be the development of previously noted side effects in studies of TxA usage - primarily headache, diarrhea and nausea predominantly associated with oral administration of TxA - as self-reported by the participants of those studies. Incidence of all side effects will be monitored.
Approximately 1 month post-operatively

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Northwestern University

Collaborators

Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Saint Joseph Hospital, Chicago, Illinois

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robert L Walton, MD, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine

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 (Actual)

July 12, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 21, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 21, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

September 26, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 19, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STU00214745

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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.

No

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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