Chest Tube-Delivered Bupivacaine to Decrease Postoperative Pain After Cardiac Surgery

Starting soon · Early Phase 1 · Has a placebo group

Conditions studied: Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG), Chest Tubes, Post Operative Pain Control

In brief

Background: After heart surgery, patients require temporary chest tubes - plastic drains placed inside the chest to prevent fluid building up around the heart and lungs. These tubes are often very painful and can limit breathing, coughing, and movement, which necessitates usage of painkiller medication (opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)) that have negative side effects and can prolong hospital recovery. Despite this common problem, routine care lacks simple, add-on strategies that directly numb pain at the chest tube sites rather than relying solely on whole-body painkiller medicine. Purpose: To determine whether injecting a long-acting numbing medicine (bupivacaine 0.5%) through chest tubes safely reduces pain and lowers opioid and NSAID use compared with placebo. Objective: With ethics approval, data access, and study procedures already in place before May, the specific objective for this studentship is to collect and analyze data to evaluate the short-term effect of bupivacaine versus placebo on: * Mean pain scores from initial recovery to chest tube removal * Total mean opioid and NSAID use Methods: This single-centre, 1:1 block randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will enroll 60 adults undergoing coronary artery bypass (procedure to bypass blocked blood vessels supplying heart muscle using healthy blood vessels) at the Foothills Medical Centre. Patients receive either 10 mL bupivacaine 0.5% or normal saline (saltwater placebo) through chest tubes by heart surgeons whenever pain hits ≥3/10 using the Numeric Rating Scale (0 = no pain; 10 = most intense pain), from initial recovery to chest tube removal. Standard pain care will continue for all patients. The study team will record pain scores, opioid and NSAID doses, and any side effects for each group. Interval pain reduction will be measured 30, 60, 120 and 240 minutes post injection. Mean pain reduction and total painkiller use will be compared between the two groups.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07643506

Run by

University of Calgary

People needed

60

Starts

2026-06-15

Expected to finish

2028-06-30

Last updated by the study team

2026-06-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Age 18 years or older at the time of consent
• Scheduled to undergo elective or semi-elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery via midline sternotomy
• Procedure involves the use of a mammary artery graft
• Capable of providing informed written consent prior to surgery
• Able to communicate pain scores using a numeric rating scale (NRS)
• These criteria ensure the study population is the clinically relevant group most likely to benefit from the intervention and that participants can provide valid consent and meaningful pain assessments.

You may not qualify if…

• Known allergy or hypersensitivity to bupivacaine or any amide-type local anesthetic
• Emergency or urgent cardiac surgery where obtaining consent prior to the procedure is not feasible
• Inability to communicate pain using numeric rating scale due to cognitive impairment, language barrier, or altered level of consciousness
• Participation in another interventional clinical trial that may confound pain outcome
• These exclusion criteria are designed to protect participant safety, ensure the validity and interpretability of study outcomes (pain scoring ability), and maintain scientific rigor.

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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