Current Studies

PI: Jeremy Cannon, MD
Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery
Traumatic HTX Drainage and Daily Lavage: Pilot Study: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of daily irrigations on acute hemothorax (HTX) management. Twenty stable trauma patients requiring a chest tube for HTX will be recruited and consented; ten patients will receive a 28Fr open chest tube with daily lavage, and ten patients will receive a 14Fr percutaneous chest tube with daily lavage. Patient outcomes will be compared to historical control patients who underwent either 28Fr or 14Fr chest tube placement and initial lavage only.

PI: Nathan J. Klingensmith, MD
Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery
bDNA in Trauma: Red blood cell bound bacterial DNA in severely injured trauma patients: While we have shown red blood cell (RBC) bacterial DNA (bDNA) binding at homeostasis and in sepsis, the presence of RBC bDNA in trauma patients is unclear. Using 16s qPCR in traumatically injured patients in hemorrhagic shock and healthy human controls, we aim to quantify bDNA on RBCs of traumatically injured patients.

PI: Shampa Chatterjee, PhD
Department of Physiology
Isolation of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear cells (PBMC) from human blood: This is primarily an in vitro study, whereby the blood will be collected from patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS daily from admission to 21 days or until discharge. The blood will be used to 1) measure oxidative stress in blood and 2) isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBC) to derive an in vitro/ ex vivo human immune system model. The effect of novel agent PIP-2 will be checked on this in vitro system.

PI: Jeremy Cannon, MD
Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery
Trauma Resuscitation with Low-Titer Group O Whole Blood or Products (TROOP)
The goal of this clinical trial is to compare the effectiveness of unseparated whole blood (referred to as Low-Titer Group O Whole Blood) and the separate components of whole blood (including red cells, plasma, platelets, and cryoprecipitate) in critically injured patients who require large-volume blood transfusions.

PI: Jeremy Cannon, MD
Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery
Aortic Occlusion for Resuscitation in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (AORTA)
A prospective multi-center observational trial of the utilization of aortic occlusion in the acute resuscitation of trauma and acute care surgery patients.

PI: Niels Martin, MD
Division of Traumatology, Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery, Department of Surgery
External Drainage of Thoracic Duct Lymph to Reduce Inflammatory Cytokines in Septic Shock Patients
This pilot study aims to demonstrate that external drainage of thoracic duct lymph during sepsis results in a reduction in circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines by assessing early thoracic duct cannulation and external lymph drainage in adult surgical intensive care patients.

PI: John Greenwood MD
Department of Emergency Medicine and Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Fluid management of Acute decompensated heart failure Subjects Treated with Reprieve System - FASTR II Trial
This study aims to prospectively compare the safety, effectiveness, and clinical utility of decongestive therapy administered by the Reprieve System to optimal diuretic therapy in adult ADHF patients presenting to the ED requiring decongestion. The Reprieve System continuously monitors urine output and urine sodium concentration to identify and administer the diuretic dose required to meet decongestion goals.

PI: John Greenwood MD
Department of Emergency Medicine and Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Penn Cardiac Arrest bioRepository for Discovery and Innovative Omics research (Penn CARDIO)
This will be an observational study of patients who experience cardiac arrest. The overall objective is developing a post-arrest biorepository to identify plasma biomarkers and biologic pathways that are prognostic of neurologic recovery and overall survival.

PI: John Greenwood, MD, MS
Department of Emergency Medicine and Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Influence of Cooling Duration on Efficacy in Cardiac Arrest Patients (ICECAP)
ICECAP is a multicenter, randomized, adaptive allocation clinical trial to identify the optimal duration of induced hypothermia for neuroprotection in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest.

PI: Danielle Sandsmark, MD , PhD
Department of Neurology
Multi-Arm Multi-Stage Adaptive Platform Trial (APT) for the Acute Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury
The main goal of this study is to confirm safety, determine futility and identify whether any of the active treatment interventions improves the functional outcome in participants with a Traumatic Brain Injury.

PI: John Chandler, MD
Department of Neurology
MOBI-1
MOBI-1 will evaluate the use of the Infrascanner for the monitoring of traumatic intracranial hematomas. The Infrascanner is a hand-held, non-invasive device, which is FDA-cleared to detect traumatic intracranial hematomas. MOBI-1 aims to expand the utility of the device by evaluating its ability to serially monitor patients with intracranial hematomas, following the initial detection with CT, to detect expansion prior to the observance of clinical signs.

PI: Danielle Sandsmark, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology
Brain Oxygen Optimization in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury – Phase 3 (BOOST-3)
BOOST-3 is a comparative effectiveness study to test the efficacy of a prescribed treatment protocol based on monitoring the partial pressure of brain tissue oxygen (PbtO2).

PI: Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil
Department of Emergency Medicine
Volatile Organic Molecule (VOC) Detection of Ovarian Cancer
This early-stage study aims to measure volatile organic compound (VOC) signals in urine samples from patients with varying stages of prostate cancer and compare them against urine samples from patients with benign urology conditions as controls.

PI: Scott E. Hensley, PhD
Department of Microbiology
Flu Infection at UPHS
Cellular and humoral immune responses in individuals with active influenza infection will be assessed. Each year, up to 50 participants will be enrolled. We hypothesize that influenza infection will elicit mostly memory immune responses rather than de novo immune responses to infection.

Current Studies

Trauma and Surgical Critical Care

Cardiac Arrest and Emergency Medicine

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Neurology

COVID-19 and Miscellaneous