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Surgical Trial in Lobar Intracerebral Haemorrhage
ISRCTN ISRCTN22153967
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier
Public title Surgical Trial in Lobar Intracerebral Haemorrhage
Scientific title
Acronym STICH II
Serial number at source MRC G0501444/NUTH 3545
Study hypothesis To establish whether a policy of earlier surgical evacuation of the haematoma in selected patients with spontaneous lobar IntraCerebral Haemorrhage (ICH) will improve outcome compared to a policy of initial conservative treatment. The trial will also help to better define the indications for early surgery.
The protocol can be found on http://www.ncl.ac.uk/stich/
Ethics approval Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee for Scotland (Committee A) (REC Reference: 06/MRE00/66), the committee met on August 22 2006, and the approval letter was issued on 28 August 2006.
Study design International multicentre randomised parallel group trial
Countries of recruitment Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America
Disease/condition/study domain Spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage confined to the lobar region
Participants - inclusion criteria 1. Evidence of a spontaneous lobar ICH on Computed Tomography (CT) scan (within 1 cm of the cortical surface)
2. Patient within 48 hours of ictus
3. The 'clinical uncertainty principle' is used: only patients for whom the responsible neurosurgeon is uncertain about the benefits of either treatment are eligible. These include patients with a haematoma volume of between 10 and 100 ml and a best motor score on the Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of five or six together with some eye opening
Participants - exclusion criteria 1. Clear evidence that the haemorrhage is due to an aneurysm or angiographically proven arteriovenous malformation
2. Intraventricular haemorrhage of any sort
3. ICH secondary to tumour or trauma
4. Basal ganglia, thalamic, cerebellar or brainstem haemorrhage or extension of a lobar haemorrhage into any of these regions
5. Severe pre-existing physical or mental disability or severe co-morbidity which might interfere with assessment of outcome
6. If surgery cannot be performed within 12 hours
Anticipated start date 01/09/2006
Anticipated end date 30/08/2010
Status of trial Completed
Patient information material A patient information sheet section is included in the protocol available on http://www.ncl.ac.uk/stich/
Target number of participants 600
Interventions The trial intervention is early evacuation of the haematoma by craniotomy, combined with appropriate best medical treatment versus best medical treatment, combined with delayed evacuation only if it becomes necessary later.

In the STICH trial, 26% of patients crossed over from conservative treatment to surgery but we have little information about the reasons for crossover. This is a major problem with surgical trials and crossovers of this size are common (Fairbank et al 2005). We aim to have fewer crossovers in STICH II. We will collect further information about the status (GCS and focal signs) of all patients through the first five days of their trial progress in order to be able to monitor the change in status that leads to a change in equipoise for the treating neurosurgeon.
Primary outcome measure(s) Unfavourable outcome will be death or severe disability which will be defined using a prognosis based eight point Glasgow Outcome Scale/Modified Rankin Scale (Mendelow et al 2003, 2005).
Secondary outcome measure(s) 1. Mortality
2. Modified Rankin Scale
3. Barthel's Index of Activities of daily living (BAI)
4. EuroQol Quality of Life Health Survey
5. Survival
Sources of funding Medical Research Council (MRC) (UK) (ref: G0501444)
Trial website http://www.ncl.ac.uk/stich
Publications
Contact name Prof  A David  Mendelow
  Address Department of Neurosurgery
Directorate of Neurosciences
Newcastle General Hospital
Westgate Road
  City/town Newcastle upon Tyne
  Zip/Postcode NE4 6BE
  Country United Kingdom
  Tel +44 (0)191 2563151
  Fax +44 (0)191 256 3268
  Email stich@ncl.ac.uk
Sponsor Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust (UK)
  Address Research and Development Department
Clinical Research Facility
4th Floor, Leazes Wing
Royal Victoria Infirmary
Queen Victoria Road
  City/town Newcastle upon Tyne
  Zip/Postcode NE1 4LP
  Country United Kingdom
Date applied 31/03/2006
Last edited 23/07/2009
Date ISRCTN assigned 11/10/2006
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