Comprehensive moUth-care to reduce Post-operative PneumoniA (CUPPA)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Comprehensive moUth-care to reduce Post-operative PneumoniA (CUPPA)

• IRAS ID

  161647

• Contact name

  Charles Gibson

• Contact email

  charlesgibson@nhs.net

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 6 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Pneumonias are one of the most common serious complications after major surgery. They increase risk of death, length of hospital stay and delay recovery. Patients are at risk of pneumonia after major abdominal surgery due to poor cough, poor deep breathing and poor mobility; all often due to pain from the surgical wounds. However, another important cause may be the passage of bacteria from the mouth cavity into the lungs both during general anaesthesia and over the early days of recovery after surgery.
  We routinely treat patients who are sedated and receiving mechanical ventilation on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with anti-septic mouthwashes (e.g. chlorhexidine) to prevent the development of pneumonia. However, this is not a treatment that we use in patients who are recovering from major abdominal surgery but who have not been admitted to ICU. There is little research into this area, despite our estimate that pneumonias happen in at least 8% of patients having major abdominal surgery.

  This study will be a pilot multi-centered randomised trial conducted by the South West Anaesthesia Research Matrix ( a research network linking hospitals) and will recruit patients from the 6 trusts within our network.
  We plan to recruit 120 patients undergoing elective (planned) major abdominal surgery and who are predicted to be at moderate/high risk of developing a post-operative pneumonia (using a risk score). Patients will be randomly allocated to one of two groups; the patients’ normal oral hygiene regimen or a comprehensive oral hygiene regimen.

  This is a pilot study to test the comprehensive oral hygiene regime, test our research network model and to acquire data to undertake a sample-size calculation. If the pilot suggests feasibility then a larger follow up study we would test whether prophylactic use of comprehensive oral hygiene regime may reduce the rate of post-operative chest infections.

• REC name

  North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/NW/0092

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Jan 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion