Dexamethasone and patient-centred outcomes in cardiac surgery

DECS-II trial: Dexamethasone for Cardiac Surgery-II

The DECS-II trial is a multicentre, pragmatic, assessor-blinded, randomised trial of dexamethasone (1mg/kg, single dose) versus placebo, in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, employing a novel, highly efficient trial design. The trial will evaluate whether high-dose dexamethasone has a patient-centered benefit of enhancing recovery and increasing the number of days at home after cardiac surgery.

Principal investigators

Professor Paul Myles, Dr Stefan Dieleman and Dr Lieke Verheije.

Progress

Recruitment to the DECS-II trial has now been completed. A total of 1956 patients were recruited to the study. The final publication will be available in 2023.

Sample size

1400 patients from Australia and 1400 patients from Utrecht, Netherlands.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03002259

How to get involved

For further information about this study, please contact the DECS-II Project Manager, Sophie Wallace by email.

Related publications

Myles PS, Dieleman JM, Forbes A, Heritier S, Smith JA. Dexamethasone for Cardiac Surgery trial (DECS-II): Rationale and a novel, practice preference-randomized consent design. Am Heart J. 2018 Oct;204:52-57. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2018.06.008. Epub 2018 Jun 21. PMID: 30081275.