Emergency Laparotomy Follow-up Study (ELFUS1): protocol version 1.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Emergency Laparotomy Follow-up Study: A pilot observational study into the medical, functional and social impact of emergency abdominal surgery during the first year of recovery. (ELFUS1)
IRAS ID
211059
Contact name
David Saunders
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 2 days
Research summary
Emergency bowel surgery (“emergency laparotomy”, EL) is a common and high-risk operation. Patients are often elderly and frail. They are at high risk of serious problems due to their illness and surgery. Commonly patients need a long stay in hospital after surgery, and many do not survive. The National Emergency Laparotomy Audit now accurately measures death rates after EL in England and Wales. Up to date analysis shows that about 11% of all patients, and about 20% of those over 70 die by 30 days after surgery. This is a much higher rate than almost all non-emergency surgery.
Less well understood is the impact of EL on those who survive. For example how well they can care for themselves, how often they need to return to hospital, and the risk of dying later on during their recovery.
Our ultimate aim is to improve the services we offer patients around the time of surgery, but to do this effectively we need first to understand how much patients are affected by their surgery.
Our study has been designed to record how commonly medical problems arise following EL. We will follow patients for one year following surgery, and measure how much their day-to-day lives have been affected by their surgery. We will measure their mobility and how well they are able to care for themselves, how their memory and mood has been affected, and look for any ongoing pain problems. We will use GP records to help give an idea of how much support patients have needed in the community during the year.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0334
Date of REC Opinion
31 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion