Treatment of agitation in terminally ill patients with intranasal midazolam versus subcutaneous midazolam: study protocol for a randomised controlled open-label monocentric trial (MinTU Study)

Abstract

Background Intranasal (i.n.) drug application is a widely known and low-invasive route of administration that may be able to achieve rapid symptom control in terminally ill patients. According to the German S3 guideline “Palliative care for patients with incurable cancer”, benzodiazepines, such as midazolam, are recommended for the treatment of terminal agitation. To the best of our knowledge there is no evidence for i.n. midazolam in terminally ill patients. We aim to assess the use of i.n. midazolam as an alternative to subcutaneous administration of the drug. Methods In this monocentric, randomised, controlled, open-label investigator initiated trial, n = 60 patients treated at the palliative care unit of a University Hospital will be treated with 5 mg midazolam i.n. versus 5 mg subcutaneous (s.c.) midazolam in the control arm when terminal agitation occurs (randomly assigned 1:1). The estimated recruitment period is 18 months. Treatment efficacy is defined as an improvement on the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (Palliative Version) (RASS-PAL) and a study specific numeric rating scale (NRS) before and after drug administration. Furthermore, plasma concentration determinations of midazolam will be conducted at t1 = 0 min, t2 = 5 min, and t3 = 20 min using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The primary objective is to demonstrate non-inferiority of midazolam i.n. in comparison to midazolam s.c. for the treatment of agitation in terminally ill patients. Discussion Midazolam i.n. is expected to achieve at least equivalent reduction of terminal agitation compared to s.c. administration. In addition, plasma concentrations of midazolam i.n. are not expected to be lower than those of midazolam s.c. and the dynamics of the plasma concentration with an earlier increase could be beneficial. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Registry DRKS00026775, registered 07.07.2022, Eudra CT No.: 2021-004789-36.

Intranasal Therapy in Palliative Care

“…The randomized open-label study comparing intranasal versus intravenous lorazepam (0.1 mg kg −1 ) for control of acute seizures in children has shown clinical seizures remission within 10 min in 83 and 80% of patients, respectively [ 78 ]. The authors are aware of an ongoing study comparing the sedative effect of midazolam administered by the subcutaneous and intranasal route, in which the plasma concentration of the drug is being investigated [ 76 ].…”