Patient experience of malignant pleural effusion
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The experiences of patients living with malignant pleural effusions
IRAS ID
198659
Contact name
Paul Perkins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Malignant pleural effusion (accumulation of fluid in the linings between the ribs and the lung caused by cancer) is a common clinical problem. Patients develop symptoms as the lung is compressed. Currently there are a number of different treatments to drain the fluid and attempt to stop it reoccurring. Talc Pleurodesis is a process where the fluid is drained and talc is injected to “stick” the pleural linings together. This requires admission to hospital and it does not always work.
A more recent development has been an indwelling pleural catheter (IPC) which can be placed as a day case and allows fluid to be drained every now and again with the patient at home. However, it does mean ha a plastic drain is left in the chest wall.
There is little known about patient experience of having these procedures. Valuable insights into experience may provide direction to help doctors and nurses to counsel patients.
We want to study patients undertaking pleural procedures across Gloucestershire. The pleural service will identify patients who fit the inclusion criteria. They will ask the patient to consider participation and then pass the patient’s contact details to a member of the research team.
Participants will be interviewed once at least four weeks post procedure to allow for an impact on their quality of life, which may be positive or negative if the procedure were to fail and fluid re-accumulate.
Interviews will follow a topic guide and will be recorded on a digital audio recorder and then downloaded on to a password protected computer. The interviews will then be sent for transcription using secure email and anonymised. The interviews will be analysed using content analysis. The research team will identify themes emerging from the interviews.REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0222
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion