HALT-IT Trial Overview

This video is a trial overview for the HALT-IT trial conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The HALT-IT trial is assessing whether early administration of tranexamic acid in people with acute gastrointestinal bleeding can reduce their risk of dying in the hospital. The trial is also measuring the effects of the treatment on re-bleeding, non-fatal vascular events, blood transfusion, surgical intervention and general health status. The HALT-IT trial began recruitment on 4 July 2013 and is aiming to recruit 8,000 patients from hospital worldwide by 30 April 2017.

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a common emergency with a 10-15% death rate. An effective treatment could save thousands of lives worldwide, In the CRASH-2 trial, we showed that, if given within 1 hour, tranexamic acid reduces mortality in bleeding trauma patients. Specifically, tranexamic acid reduces the risk of bleeding to death by about one third, with no increase in side effects. If tranexamic acid was shown to have similar effects in gastrointestinal bleeding, this would be a major advance.