Efficacy of prehospital administration of tranexamic acid in trauma patients: A meta-analysis of the randomized controlled trials

Abstract Objective Antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid (TXA) has a potential clinical benefit for in-hospital patients with severe bleeding but its effectiveness in pre-hospital settings remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate whether pre-hospital administration of TXA compared to placebo improve patients' outcomes? Methods PubMed, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Scopus, clinicaltrials.gov and Google scholar databases were searched for a retrospective, prospective and randomized (RCT) or quasi-RCT studies that assessed the effect of prehospital administration of TXA versus placebo on the outcomes of trauma patients with significant hemorrhage. The main outcomes of interest were 24 hour 30-day mortality and in-hospital thromboembolic complications. Two authors independently abstracted the data using a data collection form. Results from different studies were pooled for the analysis, when appropriate. Results Out of 92 references identified through the search, two analytical studies met the inclusion criteria. The effect of TXA on 24-hour mortality had a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 0.49 (95% CI 0.28–0.85), 30-day mortality OR of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.56–1.32), and thromboembolic events OR of 0.74 (95% CI, 0.27–2.07). Conclusion Prehospital TXA appears to reduce early mortality in trauma patients. The pooled analysis also shows a trend toward lower 30-day mortality and reduced risk of thromboembolic events. Additional randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to determine the significance of these trends.