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Effect of Intravenous Nutrition and Epidural Analgesia on Protein Loss After Surgery

NCT00614133 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 22

Last updated 2008-02-13

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Loss of muscle mass and body protein are the main causes of fatigue after bowel surgery, which may result in a longer hospital stay and a higher rate of complications. This particularly applies to malnourished patients with cancer who undergo surgery with less muscle protein reserves than patients who are well-nourished. Anesthesiologists can favourably influence these undesirable consequences of surgery by choosing the type of pain treatment, i.e. analgesia. Our group recently observed that pain treatment with epidural catheters (these are placed in the so called epidural space, which lies between the spine and the skin of the back), in contrast to the more conventional use of intravenous morphine, can prevent the loss of body protein after surgery.

The goal of the present research program is to study whether this protein sparing effect of epidural analgesia can be further augmented if we feed our patients intravenously with glucose and protein starting the day prior to surgery. We believe that this new concept will not only avoid the increased protein loss after surgery, but will also help patients to build up new protein which is needed to fight the stress caused by the operation.

Conditions

  • Postoperative Protein Catabolism

Interventions

OTHER

Intravenous nutrition with glucose and amino acids

Glucose and amino acids intravenously starting 20 hours before the operation until the second postoperative day. Glucose provides 50% and amino acids 20% of each patient's measured resting energy expenditure.

OTHER

Intravenous nutrition with glucose and amino acids.

Glucose and amino acids intravenously starting with surgical skin incision until the second postoperative day. Glucose provides 50% and amino acids 20% of each patient's measured resting energy expenditure.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Thomas P Schricker, MD PhD · Department of Anaesthesia, McGill University Health Centre

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2004-06-30
Primary Completion
2007-06-30
Completion
2007-06-30

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00614133 on ClinicalTrials.gov