Effectiveness of intensive care in vascular surgery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effectiveness of intensive care for patients undergoing vascular surgery in the United Kingdom
IRAS ID
350393
Contact name
Kitty Hiu Fung Wong
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Every year, over 12,000 people in the UK undergo major surgery to treat narrowing or blockages of the blood vessels. These operations are high risk and outcomes are poor, especially as these patients are often frail with many medical conditions. Consequently, patients often need to go to intensive care for recovery. These are specialist wards with teams that provide intensive monitoring and treatment, which help to treat serious post-operative complications that are difficult to manage on the ward. However, invasive tests in intensive care can be traumatic for patients. The lack of intensive bed space currently leads to cancellation of 347 urgent operations per month, which could negatively impact people’s lives due to progression of untreated disease, and it is not feasible for all patients to go to intensive care. There are currently no guidelines to tell us who is best treated in intensive care, and who can recover safely on a normal ward without impacting their recovery.
Our study will look at how intensive care beds are being used currently for people having major surgery on the blood vessels across the UK, and find out who may benefit from intensive care versus normal ward-based care. Information routinely collected in NHS vascular and intensive care registries about people who had major surgery on the blood vessels from 2014 to 2023 will be used to find out how many people went to intensive care after surgery, compare patients who went to intensive care after surgery with those who went to a normal ward, and look at what happened to each group afterwards, such as if there were any deaths and complications from surgery and how quickly patients left the hospital. The study will only use older existing data and will not compromise current patient care while it is being conducted.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NE/0088
Date of REC Opinion
2 May 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion