No effect of tetracosactide for treatment of postdural puncture headaches in parturient women: a double-blind randomised controlled clinical trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Cosyntropin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Postdural puncture headache (PDPH) is a common complication of neuraxial anaesthesia in obstetrics.

European Union Clinical Trials Register (2015-003357-17); ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02813655); French Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des Produits de Santé (160214A-31).

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, women only.

Secondary outcomes included headache duration and intensity, activity limitation, length of hospital stay, and the number of EBPs performed per patient.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Cosyntropin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Cosyntropin.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Cosyntropin, giving a reference point.

A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in two tertiary care maternal hospitals.

The primary outcome was the rate of EBP within the 15-day follow-up.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Post-Dural Puncture Headache, Blood Patch, Epidural, Cosyntropin and Anesthesia, Obstetrical.

The authors tagged it with the keywords epidural blood patch, obstetrical analgesia, postdural puncture headache and randomised trial.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Cosyntropin.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2025 (British journal of anaesthesia), a journal based in England.

More context: the Cosyntropin compound page, all human trials.