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Hospital Airway Resuscitation Trial

Hospital Airway Resuscitation Trial: A Cluster-Randomized, Pragmatic Trial

Status
Recruiting
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05520762
Acronym
HART
Enrollment
1060
Registered
2022-08-30
Start date
2023-02-10
Completion date
2027-02-28
Last updated
2025-11-21

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Cardiac Arrest, Respiratory Failure

Keywords

Cardiac Arrest, Emergency Airway Management, In-hospital Cardiac Arrest, Endotracheal Intubation, Supraglottic Airway

Brief summary

The Hospital Airway Resuscitation Trial (HART) is a cluster-randomized, pragmatic trial of advanced airway management with a strategy of first choice supraglottic airway vs. first choice endotracheal intubation during in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Detailed description

In-hospital cardiac arrest occurs in nearly 300,000 hospitalized patients in the United States each year and results in substantial morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, the evidence base guiding the management of in-hospital cardiac arrest is quite limited and society guidelines generally extrapolate data from the out-of-hospital cardiac setting to inform in-hospital arrest care. As compared to out-of-hospital arrest, however, in-hospital arrest victims tend to have more medical comorbidities, have a witnessed arrest, and be attended to by professional first responders with advanced monitoring and treatment capabilities. Advanced airway management is a key element of cardiac arrest resuscitation. The American Heart Association makes broad recommendations regarding airway management during in-hospital cardiac, supporting endotracheal intubation (a complex procedure requiring placement of an endotracheal tube through the vocal cords) and supraglottic airway placement (a less complex advanced airway modality wherein the device is placed blindly in the supraglottic space). Data from the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest setting has found that a supraglottic airway strategy may be similar or superior to a more complex endotracheal intubation strategy. There is no randomized data to guide practice in the in-hospital setting. We intend to address this knowledge gap by performing the Hospital Airway Resuscitation Trial (HART)-a highly-innovative, pragmatic cluster-randomized trial leveraging the unified clinical and research infrastructure within the Montefiore HealthSystem (New York City) to conduct a first-of-its-kind in-hospital arrest trial in a highly diverse patient population. Specifically, a mixture of academic and community hospitals within the MontefioreHealth system will be randomized to either a strategy of first-choice endotracheal intubation or a strategy of first choice supraglottic airway, with crossovers occurring at regular intervals. Key outcomes for the trial will include return of spontaneous circulation, alive-and-ventilator-free days, and hospital survival.

Interventions

PROCEDUREA strategy of first choice supraglottic airway

See description in Arms section

PROCEDUREA strategy of first choice endotracheal intubation

See description in Arms section

Sponsors

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
CollaboratorNIH
Montefiore Medical Center
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

Cluster-randomized design with crossover

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Adult aged \>=18 years 2. Admitted to the hospital for any condition 3. Suffered in-hospital cardiac arrest (loss of pulse and ≥2 minutes of chest compressions) 4. Need for assisted ventilation (defined by initiation of bag-mask-ventilation or other supported ventilation)

Exclusion criteria

1. Cardiac arrest in the Operating Room or other area not responded to by Critical Care/Emergency Department (ED) teams. 2. Cardiac arrest in which an invasive airway (i.e. endotracheal tube, tracheostomy tube) is already in place 3. Patients with Do Not Resuscitate or Do Not Intubate orders

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Alive-and-ventilator free daysFrom cardiac arrest until 28-days after cardiac arrestThe number of days a patient is alive and breathing independently of invasive mechanical ventilation will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics. A patient who leaves the hospital alive and is not discharged to a hospice setting, will be considered to have lived to 28-days. A patient discharged to a hospice facility will be assessed as having died on the day of hospital discharge. A patient who is discharged on invasive mechanical ventilation, will be assumed to have remained on invasive mechanical ventilation through 28-days.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC)Onset of in-hospital cardiac arrest event until either ROSC or death up to 24 hoursROSC will be assessed. ROSC is defined as having ≥20 minutes of continuous spontaneous circulation without chest compressions. Rates of ROSC will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
72 hour survivalFrom IHCA event until 72 hours after IHCA eventSurvival to 72 hour after in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) event will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
28 day survivalFrom IHCA event until 28 days after IHCA eventSurvival to 28 days after cardiac IHCA event will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Functional Outcome at DischargeTime of hospital dischargeFunctional Outcome at Discharge will be measured using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). The mRS is a clinical tool that measures the patient's function disability (ability to perform daily living activities). The mRS is based on a 7-point scale ranging from 0 (No symptoms at all) to 6 (Death) such that higher scores are associated with increased functional disability. Scores at discharge can be used as a proxy to help identify patients who may require closer follow-up given the difficulty in obtaining long-term follow-up. mRS scores will be dichotomized to identify all patients with mRS\>3 and summarized by study arm.
Survival to hospital dischargeFrom IHCA event until 60 days after cardiac arrestSurvival to hospital discharge, truncated at 60 days for the purposes of this outcome, will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
Chest compression fractionFrom start of chest compressions during cardiac arrest until ROSC or death up to 24-hoursPercentage of total cardiac arrest time during which chest compressions are being performed will be determined. Results will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time to epinephrineTime from initiation of chest compressions to first epinephrine for cardiac arrest with initial non-shockable rhythmTime from initiation of chest compressions to first epinephrine for cardiac arrest with initial non-shockable rhythm
Prolonged pausesFrom start of chest compressions during cardiac arrest until ROSC or death up to 24-hoursThe number of prolonged pauses, defined as pauses lasting \>5 seconds in duration, in chest compressions during active Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) will be determined. Prolonged pauses will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)Cardiac arrest until 7 days after cardiac arrestRate of VAP in the 7 days after cardiac arrest. VAP defined as new pneumonia while receiving mechanical ventilation after cardiac arrest. New pneumonia will be defined by 1) new pulmonary infiltrate on chest imaging 2) either new/worsening fever or leukocytosis 3) either change in sputum composition/frequency or worsening gas exchange or new/worsening cough or dyspnea. Rates of VAP will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time to advanced airwayTime from initiation of chest compressions to advanced airway placementTime from initiation of chest compressions to advanced airway placement
Longest Overall Pause in Chest CompressionAt time of cardiac arrest, less than one dayThe duration of the longest overall pause in chest compression will be determined. This interval will be summarized by arm using basic descriptive statistics. It is hypothesized that supraglottic airway (SGA) placement will result in chest compression pauses of shorter durations.
Number of Overall Pauses in Chest CompressionAt time of cardiac arrest, less than one dayThe number of overall pauses in chest compression, greater than 5 seconds in duration, will be summarized by arm using basic descriptive statistics. It is hypothesized that SGA placement will result in fewer chest compression pauses

Countries

United States

Contacts

Primary ContactAri Moskowitz, MD
amoskowitz@montefiore.org718-920-5440

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026