A study of desmopressin and blood loss during spinal fusion for neuromuscular scoliosis: a randomized, controlled, double-blinded study

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Vasopressin and Desmopressin.

Therefore, this study was designed to examine the homeostatic effects of DDAVP in children with severe cerebral palsy undergoing spinal fusion.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 40 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were children and teenagers.

A randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled trial of DDAVP was designed to enroll 40 patients.

However, termination of the study was advised by the Institutional Review Board after 21 patients were enrolled.

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.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vasopressin group a baseline to be compared against.

All patients had spastic quadriplegic-type cerebral palsy and were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

All patients were anesthetized with nitrous oxide, oxygen, isoflurane, and fentanyl.

Factor VIIIC and von Willebrand's factor (vWF) concentrations were measured in blood drawn before DDAVP infusion and 1 h after infusion.

Blood pressure was maintained at a systolic pressure of less than 100 mmHg.

Use of crystalloids, packed erythrocytes, platelets, and fresh frozen plasma were based on criteria established by protocol.

What Was Measured

Estimated blood loss was assessed by weighing sponges and measuring suctioned blood from canisters.

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Loss, Surgical, Blood Pressure, Cerebral Palsy, Deamino Arginine Vasopressin, Diuresis, Receptors, Vasopressin and Scoliosis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vasopressin and Desmopressin in 40 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1997 (Anesthesiology), a journal based in United States.

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