Intraluminal optical monitoring of large bowel tissue perfusion (1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An indwelling optical sensor for monitoring large bowel tissue perfusion.
IRAS ID
213233
Contact name
Veselin Rakocevic
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer related death in the UK with some 44 deaths every day. Surgery in which the tumour bearing part of the colon or rectum is excised and the two cut ends are joined together in an intestinal anastomosis to restore intestinal continuity remains the main curative treatment for bowel cancer. During bowel resection, determination of bowel viability is essential as inadequate oxygenated bloody supply, ischaemia, is a major factor causing the disruption to the healing process, resulting in an anastomotic leak, which is the leakage of bowel contents into the surrounding abdomen.
Measurement of bowel viability could result in a decrease of postoperative ischaemic complications by evaluating the bowel frequently during and after operations. Visible inspections is currently performed by the surgeons, such as the colour, arterial pulsation and presence of peristalsis; proving to be a subjective method based on the surgeons' experience.
There are numerous techniques assessing bowel viability such as Clark electrodes for measuring oxygen tension, fluorescence imaging and laser doppler flowmetry. They all have the potential of being used, however, fail routine clinical usage as threshold values have not been determined to classify the correct time to intervene to minimise the disruption of the healing process.
The research proposes the development and evaluation of a novel intraluminal optical sensor for the continuous monitoring of bowel perfusion. Such sensor technology will enable the identification of threshold values for the early detection of anastomotic complications.REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0010
Date of REC Opinion
24 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion