Effects of Perioperative Administration of Dexamethasone on Postoperative Complications and Mortality After Non-cardiac Major Surgery

Summary

Postoperative complications are major healthcare problems and are associated with a reduced short-term and long-term survival after surgery. Major surgery is associated with a predictable and usually transient Systemic Inflammatory Response (SIRS), depending on the magnitude of the surgical trauma. An excessive SIRS syndrome participates to the development of postoperative organ dysfunction, infection and mortality. Corticosteroids may decrease the postsurgical SIRS in cardiac surgery: in a large multicenter randomized trial, a single intravenous administration of high-dose dexamethasone did not reduce the incidence of a composite endpoint of adverse events but was associated with a reduced incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications and infections and with a reduction in hospital stay. However, a similar study, recently published in the Lancet was negative. Evidences from one meta-analysis, including 11 studies of moderate quality (439 patients in total), suggest that intraoperative administration of corticosteroids during major abdominal surgery decreases postoperative complications, including infectious complications, without significant risk of anastomotic leakage. At present, no large randomized controlled trial has been performed in patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery. In acute medicine, several lines of evidence have shown that low to moderate doses of corticosteroids decrease the excessive inflammatory response, without inducing immuno suppression. However, despite the widespread use of corticosteroids to reduce postoperative nausea and vomiting and to improve analgesia, concerns continue to be raised about their safety, especially regarding an increased risk of postoperative infection. We hypothesize that the perioperative administration of glucocorticoids would reduce postoperative morbidity after major non-cardiac surgery through dampening of the inflammatory response. Given the number of surgical patients for whom the question applies, the study is of significant clinical importance

Timeline

Start

2017-12-13

Primary completion

2019-04-16

Completion

2019-04-16

Outcome

Missed primary endpoint

paper Dexamethasone was not found to significantly reduce the incidence of complications and death in patients 14 days after major non-cardiac surgery. PMID 34078591 ↗

Publications

• Asehnoune K, Le Moal C, Lebuffe G, Le Penndu M, Josse NC, Boisson M, Lescot T, Faucher M, Jaber S, Godet T, Leone M, Motamed C, David JS, Cinotti R, El Amine Y, Liutkus D, Garot M, Marc A, Le Corre A, Thomasseau A, Jobert A, Flet L, Feuillet F, Pere M, Futier E, Roquilly A; PACMAN study group. Effect of dexamethasone on complications or all cause mortality after major non-cardiac surgery: multicentre, double blind, randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2021 Jun 2;373:n1162. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n1162.
• Asehnoune K, Futier E, Feuillet F, Roquilly A; PACMAN group. PACMAN trial protocol, Perioperative Administration of Corticotherapy on Morbidity and mortality After Non-cardiac major surgery: a randomised, multicentre, double-blind, superiority study. BMJ Open. 2019 Mar 23;9(3):e021262. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021262.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.