Cold Stored Platelet in Hemorrhagic Shock

The Cold Stored Platelet Early Intervention in Hemorrhagic Shock (CriSP-HS) trial is a proposed 3 year, open label, multi-center, randomized trial designed to determine the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of urgent release cold stored platelets (CSP) in patients in hemorrhagic shock. Patients will be randomized to receive either standard care or early infusion of urgent release cold stored platelets (CSP). The proposed pilot study will utilize 5 level-1 trauma centers from within the LITES network and will enroll approximately 200 patients. The primary outcome for the pilot trial is feasibility, with principal secondary clinical outcome of 24 hour mortality.

The acute management of the severely injured patient with hemorrhage following trauma center arrival has evolved over the last decade.

Current treatment priorities include prevention of coagulopathy through minimization of crystalloid and early blood component resuscitation including plasma and platelets in equal ratios with packed red blood cells. These in-hospital practices, termed damage control resuscitation, are widely used in both battlefield and civilian resuscitation following traumatic injury.

Initiation of the tenets of damage control resuscitation early, soon after arrival, has the potential to reduce downstream complications attributable to hemorrhage by intervening closer to the time of injury, prior to the development of coagulopathy; irreversible shock; and the ensuing inflammatory response. Other blood constituents have recently been shown to be beneficial when given early. Thawed plasma transfusion has been shown to safely reduce 30-day mortality when infused early, in the prehospital setting, in patients at risk of hemorrhagic shock and this separation of survival occurs within the first 3 hours. Platelet transfusion is associated with improved outcomes in the acutely bleeding patients. Cold Stored Platelets have been reported to reduce blood loss when provided for hemorrhage and are a more effective hemostatic product.

Cold stored platelets are less likely to become bacterial contaminated and were the standard of care platelet product until the 1980s. Despite this history and potential benefits, the risks associated with urgent release cold stored platelets and their respective efficacy and function over time are not known in patients with hemorrhagic shock.

By providing Cold Stored Platelets in an urgent release fashion following injury, a potentially superior hemostatic agent is given early, closer to the time of injury. The current pilot trial was designed to determine the feasibility, efficacy and safety of urgent release cold stored platelets as compared to standard care in injured patients in hemorrhagic shock. There are no high-level data which appropriately characterize the urgent release use of cold stored platelets out to 14 days or their function over that time period as compared to standard room temperature platelets. These results will be able to inform future large randomized clinical trials allowing the most appropriate injured population, inclusion criteria, and primary outcome to be selected and utilized.