Clinical trial NCT05354778: HYDROcortisone Versus Placebo for Severe HospItal-acquired Pneumonia in Intensive Care Patients: the HYDRO-SHIP Study
Official title: HYDROcortisone Versus Placebo for Severe HospItal-acquired Pneumonia in Intensive Care Patients: the HYDRO-SHIP Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia
Keywords: Hydrocortisone
Intensive Care Unit
Pneumonia
Steroids
Critical Care
Lead sponsor: Instituto de Assistencia Medica ao Servidor Publico Estadual, Sao Paulo
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Instituto do Cancer do Estado de São Paulo
name: Hospital de Câncer de Barretos
name: University of Sao Paulo
First posted: 2022-04-29
Enrollment: 180
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: This will be a multicenter, randomized, open-label clinical trial with two parallel groups: hydrocortisone and placebo. Data will be analyzed as "intention-to-treat".
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The use of corticosteroids in patients with severe community pneumonia, bacterial infection which kills lots of patients around the world, reduces the mortality of this infection. However, there are no studies with this type of drug regarding hospital-acquired pneumonia. This will be the first multicenter randomized trial to test hydrocortisone plus standard therapy in critical care patients with nosocomial pneumonia. This intervention is inexpensive and may improve the outcome of those patients, besides having an acceptable side effects profile.

Detailed description: Introduction and Objectives: the use of corticosteroids in patients with severe community pneumonia, bacterial infection which kills lots of patients around the world, reduces morbimortality. However, to our knowledge, there are no studies with steroids for patients in intensive care with nosocomial pneumonia, among which those with ventilator associated pneumonia, infections which carry a high mortality rate. The treatment for those diseases involves intensive care and antibiotics, but there is a need for inexpensive, adjuvant therapies which improve the outcome for those patients. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare hydrocortisone versus placebo, both with standard therapy, in the outcome of critical care patients diagnosed with nosocomial pneumonia.

Methods: multicenter randomized, open-label, controlled trial, with two parallel groups: hydrocortisone or placebo, associated with nosocomial pneumonia's standard treatment. Patients with viral or other etiologies of pneumonia will be excluded, as well as corticosteroids chronical users, or patients with conditions which demand this type of therapy. Intravenous 100mg of hydrocortisone and normal saline (the placebo) will be tested every eight hours for five days or until intensive care unit (ICU) discharge or until the patient dies. The sample will be of 180 patients, 90 in each group, in different ICUs in Brazil. The primary outcome will be early clinical failure between the third and seventh days of the patient's inclusion in the study. The secondary outcomes will be survival and mortality in both groups, need for intubation, mechanical ventilation, vasoactive drugs and dialysis, lengths of stay in the hospital and in the ICU and radiological progression. Moreover, we will analyze adverse events and there will be a safety interim analysis when 25% of the whole sample is recruited, which may interrupt the study in case of a high frequency of such events (\> 15% grade 3 or 4 as defined by the FDA). Finally, we will conduct an efficacy interim analysis when 50% of the sample is recruited. The study will be interrupted only if there is a statistical significant difference regarding the primary outcome with p \< 0.001 (Haybittle-Peto criteria).

Discussion, risks, and benefits: this will be the first multicenter randomized trial to test hydrocortisone plus standard therapy in critical care patients with nosocomial pneumonia. This intervention is inexpensive and may improve the outcome of those patients, besides having an acceptable side effects profile. Weighing the benefits and risks of this study, as well as its strengths and potential weaknesses, it is believed that its realization is justified, in addition to bringing important advances in the field of intensive care.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 18 years of age or older
* Suspected ou confirmed case of bacterial nosocomial pneumonia (including ventilator-associated pneumonia)
* Intensive Care Unit stay
* Signed consent form (by the patient or a legal guardian)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Women who are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breastfeeding
* Patients who are moribund or do not have a treatment perspective
* Patients with community acquired pneumonia
* Patients with other types of pneumonia (viral - including COVID-19, fungal etc.)
* Those with pulmonary infiltrates in chest image which are not compatible with bacterial pneumonia
* Patients with adrenal insufficiency
* Patients who have a condition that demands the use of corticosteroids (acute or chronic)
* Patients allergic to hydrocortisone
* Patients with refractory septic shock (those receiving more than 0,5mcg/kg/min of norepinephrine)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Early Clinical Failure
timeFrame: Between days 3 and 7
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Survival
timeFrame: Days 7 and 28
measure: Respiratory failure
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Septic shock
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Time of mechanical ventilation
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Ventilator parameters
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Ventilator parameters
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Arterial blood gas analysis
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Respiratory condition
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Time of vasoactive drugs use
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Length of stay
timeFrame: 28 days
measure: Need for renal substitution therapy
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Radiological worsening
timeFrame: 7 days
measure: Adverse effects
timeFrame: 7 days
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Sao Paulo
country: Brazil
facility: Hospital do Servidor Publico Estadual
state: Sao Paulo SP
Study officials:
affiliation: Instituto de Assistencia Medica ao Servidor Publico Estadual, Sao Paulo
name: João Manoel Silva Junior, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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