Vasopressin versus Norepinephrine in Patients with Vasoplegic Shock after Cardiac Surgery: The VANCS Randomized Controlled Trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vasopressin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Vasoplegic syndrome is a common complication after cardiac surgery and impacts negatively on patient outcomes.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The primary endpoint was a composite of mortality or severe complications (stroke, requirement for mechanical ventilation for longer than 48 h, deep sternal wound infection, reoperation, or acute renal failure) within 30 days.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and double-blind.

Because people in this Vasopressin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vasopressin, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The methods mention a period of 30 days.

This prospective, randomized, double-blind trial was conducted at the Heart Institute, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, between January 2012 and March 2014.

What Was Measured

Vasoplegic syndrome is a common complication after cardiac surgery and impacts negatively on patient outcomes.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Brazil, Cardiac Surgical Procedures, Norepinephrine, Postoperative Complications, Shock, Vasoconstrictor Agents and Vasoplegia.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Vasopressin over 30 days.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2017 (Anesthesiology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vasopressin compound page.