Commentary on Reconstituting Fibrinogen Concentrate to Maintain Blinding in a Double-blind, Randomized Trial in an Emergency Setting.
BACKGROUND
The gold standard of trial design is the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. Intravenous medication, which needs reconstitution by the attending clinician in an emergency situation, can be challenging to incorporate into a suitably blinded study.


CONCLUSIONS
We have developed a method of blindly reconstituting and administering fibrinogen concentrate (presented as a lyophilized powder), where the placebo is normal saline. Fibrinogen concentrate is increasingly being used early in the treatment of major hemorrhage. Our methodology was designed for a multicenter study investigating the role of fibrinogen concentrate in the treatment of the coagulopathy associated with major obstetric hemorrhage. The method has been verified by a stand-alone pharmaceutical manufacturing unit with an investigational medicinal products license, and to date has successfully been applied 45 times in four study centers. There have been no difficulties in reconstitution and no related adverse events reported.


CONCLUSIONS
We feel our method is simple to perform and maintains blinding throughout, making it potentially suitable for use in other trials conducted in psychologically high-pressure environments. Although fibrinogen concentrate was the focus of our study, it is likely that the method is applicable to other lyophilized medication with limited shelf life (e.g., antibiotics).
Department of Anaesthetics and Pain Control, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.
Daniel
D
Bruynseels
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine and General Intensive Care, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria; CSL Behring, Marburg, Germany.
Cristina
C
Solomon
St Mary's Pharmaceutical Unit, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.
Angela
A
Hallam
Institute of Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK; Department of Haematology, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.
Peter W
PW
Collins
Department of Anaesthetics and Pain Control, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.
Rachel E
RE
Collis
Department of Anaesthetics and Pain Control, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.
Vincent
V
Hamlyn
Department of Anaesthetics and Pain Control, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK; Institute of Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
Judith E
JE
Hall
D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000188:drug therapy; D006490:Hemostatics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D012107:Research Design
D006490:Hemostatics; D005340:Fibrinogen
double-blind method; fibrinogen; postpartum hemorrhage