"Death Rattle" - A Double Blind, Randomly Controlled, Crossover Trial
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2012-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Dying patients are often unable to clear secretions from their large airways, resulting in
noisy breathing usually described as "death rattle." While there is no evidence that patients
find this condition disturbing, the noises may be disturbing to the patient's visitors and
caregivers who may fear that the patient is choking to death.
In Israel none of the pharmaceutical drugs listed in the literature exist. Thus, Atropine
drops which have been noted in the literature as being used, though according to our
knowledge no evidence of clinical trials using sublingual Atropine were conducted.
The study is designed as a randomly controlled, double blind crossover trial. The patient
will serve as control for himself, as crossover between placebo and drug (randomly chosen)
will take place. The administrator of the drug will be blinded to the medication, each time
randomly beginning with a different drug (placebo or Atropine).
We will evaluate Atropine Sulphate 1% ophthalmic drops effect on 33 patients using a noise
score scale of 0-3. Noise scores will be taken at the start; 30 min after drug/placebo
administration and every hour thereafter. After 4-hours crossover will take place and
evaluation will follow the same protocol.