Conditions: Acute Lung Injury
Keywords: Acute lung injury Lung resection
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 52
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether N-acetylcysteine given intravenously 1 day pre-operatively is effective in preventing inflammation in the lungs, as measured by tests on blood, breath and lung specimens, in patients undergoing surgery to remove a portion of lung.

Detailed description:
Acute lung injury occurs following lung resection in about 5% cases, and has a high mortality of around 50%. Management of these patients is largely supportive. Even in patients who do not develop clinical evidence of acute lung injury, markers of inflammation and oxidative stress are present in blood and exhaled breath condensate after lung resection. The purpose of this randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study is to determine whether lung injury can be prevented by pre-administration of N-acetylcysteine.

Arms:
arm 1: Participant received N-acetylcysteine 240mg/kg in 1 litre 0.9% saline intravenous over 12 hours pre-operatively arm 2: Participant received 0.9% saline 1 litre intravenous over 12 hours pre-operatively

Interventions: intervention 1: N-acetylcysteine intervention 2: 0.9% saline
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: N-acetylcysteine 240mg/kg in 1 litre 0.9% saline intravenous over 12 hours pre-operatively intervention 2: 0.9% saline 1 litre intravenous over 12 hours pre-operatively

Protocol document: