RESULT - V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Changes in Sublingual Microcirculation Following Liver Transplantation; an Observational Study
IRAS ID
266332
Contact name
Tony Whitehouse
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, days
Research summary
This will be a prospective single centre study, observational study which will be undertaken in a tertiary intensive care unit to observe changes in sublingual capillary blood flow following liver transplantation (LT) using a CE-marked hand-held microscope.
Patients undergoing LT often need to be given large volumes of fluid and blood during and after their operation to support their blood pressure. Correctly targeting how much fluid should be given is one of the commonest challenges. Current methods of assessing resuscitation are based on measuring the patient’s global, or macro-circulation using advanced cardiac output monitoring. However, the blood pressure needs to be transmitted to the very small blood vessels (capillaries) and not just the large vessels from which we currently take readings.
We wish to observe capillary flow in the patients undergoing LT to see how much it changes in the immediate post-operative course. Although reported in other patient groups (e.g. septic shock and trauma), this has not been reported following LT.
A patient’s microcirculation can be directly visualised at the bedside using a hand held video microscope. The probe is placed sublingually, video captured and the results analysed away from the bedside.
This study will take a sample size of ten patients who are over 18 years of age and have had LT. They will have advanced cardiac monitoring in situ to assess their global circulation as part of standard care and sublingual video microscope will take 4 videos of up to 30 seconds. Using the values obtained there will then be a comparison between the patients global and microcirculation following fluid resuscitation.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
20/WA/0194
Date of REC Opinion
4 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion