Target Wound Infection
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A surgical site infection risk prediction tool to enable targeted infection prevention strategies in adult cardiac surgery.
IRAS ID
295054
Contact name
Gavin Murphy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Prevention of wound infections after heart surgery is a national research priority. Wound infections have a significant impact on the physical and mental health of patients, as well as on the lives of their relatives or carers. Treatment of wound infection costs the NHS millions of pounds per year. Evidence obtained by our research group show that the rates of these infections vary from hospital to hospital within the United Kingdom. Treatments and practices between hospitals to prevent wound infections also vary, for reasons that are not clear.
Some people are at increased risk of developing infections and targeting prevention to this group makes sense. This reduces the unnecessary use of antibiotics, and the development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics (antimicrobial resistance). However, existing tools to identify high-risk groups (risk prediction tools) are poor.
To address these challenges, we have outlined a programme of research that will develop a new wound infection risk prediction tool and identify barriers and facilitators to implementing interventions to prevent wound infection and wound infection monitoring.
This development work includes a systematic review of wound infection risk factors among patients having heart surgery, patient observations and patient and staff interviews at four heart centres in England to explore compliance with implementing interventions to prevent wound infections, and surveys and interviews with staff and service users to explore compliance with wound infection monitoring and reporting.
We will then test, in a subsequent clinical trial, whether using this tool to target infection preventions based on individual risk, will reduce infection rates, antimicrobial resistance, and save the NHS money. Our development work will take 10 (recruitment and data collection) months and will generate essential new information required for the design and successful implementation of this programme.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
21/ES/0098
Date of REC Opinion
5 Nov 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion