Does conservative treatment benefit patients with claudication
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An observational study of the effect of current conservative treatment on patients with intermittent claudication.
IRAS ID
243659
Contact name
Anne E Piper
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
Exercise-related leg pain or intermittent claudication affects 4.5% of patients above the age of 55. In Shropshire this equates to approximately 140,000 patients. Apart from the limitations to daily life caused by the symptoms, these patients also have greater than twice the normal risk of death from heart disease.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that all patients with intermittent claudication (IC) be offered a supervised exercise programme (SEP) involving two hours of SEP per week for a 12 week period. Large scale studies suggest that this may significantly improve symptoms and therefore quality of life in this important group of patients. Furthermore, regular exercise may reduce death from heart and blood vessel-related problems by half.
Establishing such a service in Shropshire with its low density rural population may be challenging and a home-based exercise programme may offer better value for both patients and NHS.
Prior to investigating which exercise programme would be more beneficial, the current study is proposed to formally benchmark our current practice.
At present, patients with IC have their risk factors assessed and are then given lifestyle advice verbally and in written form during a fifteen minute consultation with a vascular consultant. The patient may or may not be seen again in clinic depending upon the impact of symptoms on their day to day life and the anticipated need for further intervention.
The proposed observational study will quantify the effect of this approach on important end points such as perceived quality of life, pain free walking distance, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.
It is hoped that eventually, the results of this study can be compared with those from a planned randomised controlled trial of exercise regimens and will help to inform a health economic assessment of exercise interventions for IC in Shropshire.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0356
Date of REC Opinion
4 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion