PROPEL-ECMO (v1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A prospective observational study exploring the prevalence and measurement of delayed gastric emptying in critically ill adults receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
IRAS ID
344452
Contact name
Kevin Whelan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) may need support for their breathing through a machine (mechanical ventilation). Patients with severe heart or lung illness may also require ‘extracorporeal membrane oxygenation’ (ECMO), a machine that takes over the role of the lungs and heart to keep them alive.
Liquid nutrition is often given to these patients through a tube placed into their stomach via the nose or mouth (‘gastric tube’). However, patients may not receive enough nutrition through their gastric tubes. We think that this is because the stomach takes longer to empty when patients are severely unwell.
Health professionals need to know if the stomach is emptying adequately to ensure patients receive enough nutrition. A common way to measure this is by removing liquid nutrition left in the stomach with a syringe through the gastric tube (‘residual volumes’). Another method is stomach ultrasound, but this has not been tested in patients receiving ECMO.
The standard research method is called ‘scintigraphy’. Scintigraphy uses a small, safe amount of radioactivity mixed in the patient’s liquid nutrition and a special camera to scan the stomach.
This study aims to observe whether the stomach takes longer to empty in patients receiving ECMO compared to patients receiving mechanical ventilation without ECMO (stage A), and identify the best way for measuring this in ICU (stage B).
Stage A will involve measuring stomach emptying within four days of ICU admission using ‘residual volumes’ and stomach ultrasound. The study will check for differences between patients receiving ECMO versus no ECMO, and how this relates to the nutrition patients receive and how well or unwell they become in ICU.
In stage B, scintigraphy will also be undertaken in a subgroup of patients receiving ECMO, and stomach emptying results from ultrasound and ‘residual volumes’ will be compared with this.
Patients requiring mechanical ventilation (with or without ECMO) and liquid nutrition through a gastric tube will be recruited from the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Adult ICUs over 2 years.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
26/WA/0115
Date of REC Opinion
11 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion