Norepinephrine vs Phenylephrine During General Anesthesia

Completed · Phase 4

Conditions studied: Anesthesia, Surgery, Hypotension

In brief

50 million patients undergo surgery each year in the United States. Postoperative mortality is considered the third leading cause of death worldwide. Hypotension during surgery have been linked to increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. Episodes of hypotension during surgery are associated with an increased risk of acute kidney injury, stroke, cardiac events and death. Treating or preventing hypotension during general anesthesia and major surgery was found to improve outcomes. At this time, it is unclear what is the best vasopressor to maintain blood pressure during surgery under general anesthesia. With this pilot pragmatic trial, the investigators will explore the impact of norepinephrine (NE) or phenylephrine (PE) on post-operative events in patients undergoing major surgery with general anesthesia and needing vasopressors infusion to maintain their systemic arterial pressure.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT04789330

Run by

University of California, San Francisco

People needed

3626

Starts

2021-07-01

Expected to finish

2022-04-01

Last updated by the study team

2025-12-18

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 99. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• age 18 Years and older
• Surgery under general anesthesia and requiring infusion of vasopressors to maintain the mean arterial pressure.
• Surgery duration>2 hours

You may not qualify if…

• Cardiac surgery
• Patients on ECMO
• Organ transplantation
• Outpatient (come-and-go surgery)
• Obstetric procedures
• Patient already receiving NE or PE before induction of anesthesia
• Patients transferred immediately (i.e. within 24 hours) after surgery to another hospital.
• Patients with severe trauma

Where it is running

• Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center — Los Angeles, California, United States
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital — San Francisco, California, United States
• UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion — San Francisco, California, United States
• UCSF Medical Center at Parnassus — San Francisco, California, United States
• UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay — San Francisco, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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