What issue does this study address, and how could the results help patients?
Bowel surgery carries a high risk of complications with around one-quarter of patients suffering serious complications that can cause physical, mental, and financial problems. Every patient responds differently to surgery with a different risk of suffering a complication. The most common way to assess fitness for surgery is the cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET), which involves intense exercise so that heart and lung function can be measured. This is particularly challenging for elderly patients or those with mobility issues, who are often unable to complete the test. Furthermore, how the test results are interpreted can occasionally result in misleading advice.
Remote monitoring using a chest monitor can be used to measure hearth rate, breathing, temperature and activity. This is already utilised after surgery, but has not been used before surgery to assess fitness and risk of complications.
This pilot study will assess whether this is a feasible approach before a larger trial is performed.
The research team
This study is led by Professor David Jayne at the University of Leeds.