Experiences Before Surgery for Infection
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Experiences Before Surgery for Infection
IRAS ID
293014
Contact name
Maria Dudareva
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford University Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Bone and joint infection can be difficult to treat. On average, around one in five people who have surgery for bone or joint infection find that the infection comes back. This varies between people, and depends partly on health factors that could be improved before a person has surgery. Help to improve health factors before surgery is called ‘pre-habilitation.’ It is recommended before a person has surgery to treat bone or joint infection in a specialist hospital.
Health factors that affect whether bone or joint infections are cured with surgery include whether a person is well nourished, whether they smoke, whether they drink alcohol, and how well blood sugars are controlled if they are affected by diabetes. Any pre-habilitation intervention that aims to support people to change these health factors has to be fair, feasible, effective and acceptable for people who use it. To find out what interventions could be used to support people with bone and joint infection, we aim to explore the experiences of people who are waiting for, and have had, surgery for bone or joint infection.
The people we will ask to take part in the study will be adults who have bone or joint infection. We will try to include people from different backgrounds. The people who agree to take part in the study will be asked to give one or two in-depth interviews. They will be asked about their day to day life while waiting for surgery, any help they received, and what made it easier or harder to look after their health. They will be asked to agree that the interviews are recorded and made available for analysis by the team running this project. The aim of analysing these interviews would be to choose which activities could be used to help people prepare for surgery in future.
Summary of results
This study targeted people with infections affecting bones and joints. It aimed to find out more about the experiences people had while waiting for an operation. We were interested in how those experiences affected how people prepared for their operation. Among other things, how people managed their daily needs, existing illnesses, and smoking.
People were invited to give interviews with researchers at a place and time they felt comfortable, including over the phone if they preferred. Interviews were then transcribed and analysed. Sixteen people gave interviews, eight before their operation and nine after their operation.
Most people described severe pain before their operation. Painkillers and sleeplessness sometimes made it more difficult for people to have discussions with their surgical team. Getting a diagnosis and planning treatment was often hard work for the person with the infection.Most people who were, or had been, regular smokers, had tried different ways of giving up smoking already. People said they used nicotine replacement products they could get themselves: either vapes or products they could buy. People who stopped smoking around the time of an operation often did it because they couldn’t smoke, rather than because they had been through a ‘teachable moment.’
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
21/NI/0056
Date of REC Opinion
22 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion