DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

Development grant for a multicentre, randomised trial to reduce surgical site infection following emergency gastrointestinal surgery in LMICs

Project disclaimer

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Description

THE PROBLEM: Infections in wounds after bowel surgery are common in all countries. They have adverse effects for patients, doctors and health systems. For patients, they are painful, smelly, reduce quality of life and reduce time taken to return to normal activities. They are hard to treat and require prescriptions of long courses of antibiotics and return trips to the operating theatre, increasing antibiotic resistance and reducing future available treatments. They are extremely costly and require long lengths of stay in hospital and lots of nursing time. In low and middle-income countries, they are at least twice as common as they are in high-income countries. Rates of antibiotic resistance are also higher, meaning they are even harder to treat. Wound infections affect both adults and children and since people of working age can't return quickly to work, their families and communities are also adversely affected. FUTURE PROPOSED TRIAL: We aim to perform a large, multi-country randomised controlled trial looking at two simple interventions to reduce wound infections after emergency bowel surgery. Emergency surgery is the most common, demanding and burdensome type of bowel surgery in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Since the burden of wound infections is highest in these countries compared to other places in the world, this research proposal if timely and focussed toward a clinical need in LMICs. Wound infections are complex and testing two interventions at the same time may show even greater effect than just testing one, and it also improves value for money. The trial will be large and require around 2000 patients. NEED FOR A DEVELOPMENT GRANT: Before we can submit a highly competitive, world-class grant proposal, we need to perform some development work to ensure that we are prepared. This work will develop a final, tangible plan for that application, and engage local doctors and research staff into the process. We aim to: 1. Hold on site meetings in participating countries, led by local surgeons, to engage a range of staff and shortlist interventions which could be tested in their units. 2. Deliver on-site research skills training that will increase local research capacity and leadership. 3. Perform small observational studies to ensure that sites have a strategy to follow-up patients during the main trial. 4. Hold our first face-to-face collaborator group meeting, to develop a finalised protocol based on the selected interventions, that can be used for a main trial application. This meeting will also allow us to foster the strongest possible relationships between our new collaborative and improve team working. NEED FOR MORE SURGICAL RESEARCH: There is a lack of surgical research across the world, partly driven by a lack of doctors regularly performing surgical research. This initial proposal will allow is to form a collaborative that could last for many decades. We predict that this network will enable us to deliver more trials into the future, of larger sizes and complexity. In the UK, we have developed hub and spoke research networks to deliver similar trials. We aim to transfer these research skills from the NHS to LMICs to help disseminate best surgical research practice widely. This will also speed recruitment to trials and maximise generalizability. We aim that this development grant and subsequent main grant will produce a generation of surgical researchers focused on testing cost-effective interventions internationally.

Objectives

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, Nigeria, Rwanda