HAWAII
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hand and Wrist Trauma: Antimicrobials and Infection (HAWAII) Feasibility Study – A multi-centre feasibility study of antimicrobial sutures
IRAS ID
292544
Contact name
Justin Wormald
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Governance, Ethics and Assurance Team (RGEA), University of Oxford
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
Hand and wrist injuries, also known as hand and wrist ‘trauma’, account for 1-in-5 emergency hospital visits. Every year, over 5 million people in the UK are affected, from young working people to the elderly. The hand and wrist are important in daily life and for earning a living. Many injuries need surgery and there is a risk of infection afterwards. The risk is unknown, but it might be as high as 1-in-4 people. Also, little is known about the knock-on effects of infection, which might be severe, including amputation. At the end of surgery for these injuries, the skin is closed using stitches.
Specially coated stitches, known as ‘antimicrobial stitches’ might reduce infection in the wound by killing nearby bacteria. Preventing infection after surgery could improve recovery, regaining hand and wrist function sooner and could reduce NHS costs. We want to test the usefulness of these antimicrobial stitches with a clinical trial in the NHS, but we don’t know if this is possible.
We will do a small-scale study looking at antimicrobial stitches and infection. In this study, consenting participants with hand and wrist injuries from three hospitals in England will be allocated, completely by chance, into two groups. One group will get antimicrobial stitches during their surgery and one group will get normal stitches. There will be no other differences between the two groups.
The purpose of this small-scale study is to test-out the information we give to people and to see if people would be happy to take part. We will also look at the practicalities of measuring infection after surgery. The results will allow us to determine if we can conduct a larger study to see if the antimicrobial stitches do reduce infection in people having surgery for hand and wrist injuries.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0334
Date of REC Opinion
10 Nov 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion