Copenhagen Head Injury Ciclosporin (CHIC) Study

This is an open label study on the pharmacokinetics and safety of ciclosporin in patients with severe traumatic brain injury, who require intensive care unit admission and monitoring of intracranial pressure via a ventricular catheter. 20 patients will be screened, and subsequently enrolled after clinical stabilisation. Thereafter, patients will receive 2.5 mg/kg bolus dose infusion of ciclosporin, followed by either 5 mg/kg/day or 10 mg/kg/day of ciclosporin as continuous infusion for 5 days+3 days monitoring at the intensive care unit. After an additional 30 days, a follow-up phone call will be made to the patient, or the patient's nursing staff, checking patient status and serious adverse events. The two dose levels will be investigated in 10 patients each, starting with the lower dose level for the first 10 patients. Patients will have samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid drawn at pre-defined time points during the study for pharmacokinetic assessment and evaluation of biomarkers. Bedside monitoring with microdialysis and brain tissue oxygenation will be performed. The safety monitoring includes nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP), infections monitoring and adverse events collection and reporting.