The Efficacy and Safety of Chloroprocaine 1% and 2% in Pediatric Population

Randomized, multi-center, double-blind, two-armed, parallel active groups, prospective trial, to evaluate, in pediatric population undergoing Flat Foot surgery or Inguinal hernia repair, the efficacy and safety of chloroprocaine 1% and 2% for peripheral nerve block (PNB) based on concentration-response relationships. The present protocol is part of an extensive Pediatric Investigational Plan (PIP) which has been submitted to the Paediatric Committee (PDCO) of the European Medicine Agency (EMA)in the contest of the marketing authorization application of chloroprocaine use for perineural block. The PDCO has adopted a positive opinion on both the PIP and the present clinical protocol. Chloroprocaine Hydrochloride 1% Sintetica is currently marketed in 9 European countries as intrathecal (spinal) anesthetic in adults where the planned surgical procedure is not expected to exceed 40 minutes. Since 2015, the Marketing Authorization in Switzerland has been extended to chloroprocaine HCl 20 mg/mL and 30 mg/mL solutions for injection, for local anesthesia by infiltration, for PNB and epidural block, respectively. Regional analgesia, and specifically PNB, is an acceptable means of providing intraoperative anesthesia and postoperative analgesia in neonates, infants, and children while decreasing the use of systemic opioids and avoiding opioid-related adverse effects. With the advent of ultrasound and improvements in equipment in the last decade, the utilization of PNB in children has increased tremendously. Flat Foot and inguinal hernia repair have been considered the ideal surgeries for testing the clinical efficacy and safety of chloroprocaine since they are short procedures with low postoperative pain that only require a short- to intermediate-acting agent. The study consists of a treatment period of 1 day and of a single perineural injection, administered through ultrasound-guided technique in order to avoid the risk of chloroprocaine IV injection. A total of 174 (87 per treatment group, allocated to 1% or 2% arm in a ratio of 1:1) male and female paediatric patients (age range from birth to \<18 years) undergoing Flat Foot surgery or Inguinal hernia repair, planned for peripheral nerve block anaesthesia and equally distributed within the two surgical procedures.