Use of Transdermal Clonidine in Trauma Patients

Overview

This study will attempt to learn how to better treat trauma patients with delirium who are on a breathing machine. Delirium, also known as acute, temporary brain dysfunction, is a common reason why ventilated patients can not be weaned from the breathing machine even though their lungs may be healthy enough to breathe without the machine. The study hopes to show that by decreasing the patient's delirium it will lead to quicker weaning from the breathing machine and possibly a quicker overall recovery as well. Patients enrolled in this study will be treated with Clonidine or placebo. Clonidine is a drug that produces significant calming effects, decreases anxiety, and reduces pain, but with a lower incidence of delirium than other medications used in the ICU for this purpose. Clonidine is not approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration for treatment of delirium, but is commonly used for this purpose.

Obtaining the appropriate level of sedation and analgesia in severely injured trauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) can be challenging due to the diversity of injuries as well as the breadth of comorbidities present in this population. Clonidine may be a useful adjuvant to traditional analgesics such as opioids and sedatives such as benzodiazepines and propofol. Ventilator dependent trauma patients frequently fail extubation trials secondary to inappropriate sedation, inadequate analgesia or undertreated delirium. Patients that fail extubation for these reasons have a potentially preventable prolonged ventilator, ICU and hospital course. Ventilated trauma patients that meet criteria for our institution's SBT protocol and have the diagnosis of delirium will be considered for the trial if they have a documented failed SBT. We hypothesize treatment of this patient population with transdermal Clonidine will decrease delirium in trauma patients during their ICU stay. Patients enrolled in the treatment group will receive an oral loading dose of Clonidine 0.3 mg and placement of a Clonidine Transdermal system at a dose of 0.3-mg/day (Catapres TTS-3) covered by a patch overlay. In 12 hours the patient will receive a second and final dose of Clonidine 0.3 mg. The placebo group will receive a placebo oral tablet and the overlay patch only and in 12 hours they will receive a second and final placebo tablet. A total of 120 patients will be enrolled, 60 patients in each group. All patients will complete the study at end of Day 14 or upon discharge from the hospital, whichever comes sooner. Ventilator times will be measured in each group as well as the prevalence of delirium by the amount of positive CAM-ICU scores over the course of the trial.