Intensive Care Network Podcasts

According to a quote variably attributed to Niels Bohr, Yogi Berra, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and others ‘prediction is difficult; especially about the future’. Nevertheless, in an era of evidence-based medicine, one might surmise that the future of management of GI bleeding in the ICU will be informed by large-scale high quality RCTs. There are a number of such trials on the horizon that give us a pretty good idea of what the future holds. Based on my best-guess of what these trials will show I predict that in the future we will: 1. Use more TXA in patients with GI bleeding. 2. Use less stress ulcer prophylaxis. The Haemorrhage ALleviation with Tranexamic acid (TXA) – InTestinal system trial (HALT-IT) is a pragmatic trial that will compare TXA to placebo in 8000 participants with clinically significant gastrointestinal bleeding. The rationale for this trial is that decreasing fibrinolysis with TXA will increase clot stability, improve haemostasis, and reduce rebleeding, leading to reduced mortality for p