Anastomosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Anastomosis – AI Approaches To Monitoring Surgical Inpatients
IRAS ID
325880
Contact name
Fiona Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Anastomosis is an observational study that aims to investigate if Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to improve patient monitoring after free flap reconstructive surgery. In free flap reconstructive surgery, tissue is moved from one part of the body to another and “plumbed” into the new location by joining the blood vessels. Rarely there can be problems with the flap that require another operation to fix. We know that the sooner problems with a flap are detected, the better chance there is of fixing it. Hence, the current gold standard of care involves regular checks by staff where they measure the patient’s observations (e.g. heart rate and blood pressure) and check the appearance and temperature of the flap and check its blood supply using a doppler ultrasound machine.
Patients undergoing elective and trauma free flap reconstructive surgery at participating NHS hospitals (St John’s Hospital, Livingston and Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne) will be invited to join the study. In addition to receiving the current gold standard of care study participants will also have photographs of their free flaps taken and these and the data from the routine free flap checks will be collected and anonymised and sent to the University of Edinburgh for analysis.
AI models will be built to analyse each of the different types of data. For example, computer vision models will be trained on images of free flaps to see if the computer can detect subtle changes in flap appearance that could indicate a problem with the flap. The different AI models will then be combined to build a computer model the predicts the risk of free flap problems. Involvement in the study will not impact on the patient’s care as the analysis is performed after they have been discharged home.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
24/WS/0071
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jul 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion