The Center for Injury Science at UAB (CIS), together with the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, has been awarded $8.8 million by the National Institutes of Health to conduct a clinical trial in trauma patients.

The Trauma Resuscitation with Group O Whole Blood or Products, or TROOP trial, will compare two resuscitation strategies — one using whole blood, the other using component therapy — in trauma patients predicted to require large-volume blood transfusions.

Bleeding is the most common cause of preventable death following injury. The traditional approach for treating injured patients who are bleeding is to transfuse multiple separate units of red blood cells, plasma and platelets — known as component therapy. However, recent evidence suggests outcomes are better when patients receive whole blood, instead of previously separated blood products.

TROOP is the first large-scale clinical trial evaluating whole blood in injured patients. The design of the trial was supported by a U34 planning grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The TROOP trial’s Clinical Coordinating Center is based in the Center for Injury Science at UAB, and the Data Coordinating Center is based in the School of Public Health, at UT Health.

The CCC’s principal investigators are Jan Jansen, MBBS, PhD, the director of CIS, and a professor in the UAB Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and John Holcomb, MD, a CIS senior scientist.