Use of desmopressin acetate to reduce blood transfusion requirements during cardiac surgery in patients with acetylsalicylic-acid-induced platelet dysfunction

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, men only.

Men under the age of 70 years who had taken acetylsalicylic acid within 7 days of scheduled coronary artery bypass surgery.

Patients with an abnormal hematologic profile or a history of bleeding or who were receiving heparin or undergoing repeat coronary bypass surgery were excluded.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vasopressin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Vasopressin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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

The timeline in the abstract includes 7 days.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study.

Forty-four patients were randomized with restriction in blocks of 10; 20 received DDAVP and 24 received a placebo.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Aspirin, Blood Loss, Surgical, Blood Platelets, Blood Transfusion, Blood Volume, Coronary Artery Bypass and Deamino Arginine Vasopressin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vasopressin and Desmopressin over 7 days.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1994 (Canadian journal of surgery. Journal canadien de chirurgie), a journal based in Canada.

More context: the Vasopressin compound page and the Desmopressin compound page, all human trials.