Para-Oesophageal hernia SympTom Tool Collaborative
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Para-Oesophageal hernia SympTom(POST) Collaborative
IRAS ID
305553
Contact name
Sheraz R Markar
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Para-oesophageal hernias (POHs) present with a variety of symptoms and can have significant impact on patients’ quality of life (QOL). In many cases, POHs are incidental findings and are asymptomatic, but for a proportion of patients with larger hernias, the symptoms can have a substantial impact upon their QOL and functional status. Surgical repair is recommended in symptomatic cases, and reduces the risk of complications which have a high mortality. There is conflicting evidence as to whether elective repair should be carried out in asymptomatic patients. Symptoms from POH range from chronic cough, to difficulty swallowing and pain after eating. Many symptoms overlap with those of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD). The incidence and severity of these symptoms varies with the size of the POH.
There are numerous patient-reported QOL assessment tools, typically in the form of questionnaires, to identify the severity of GORD, which are used by clinicians as part of symptomatic evaluation before proceeding to recommend anti-reflux surgery. The published literature frequently uses these tools for reflux interchangeably for patients with POH. However, there are no QOL nor symptom assessment tools to specifically identify the severity and breadth of symptoms for patients with POH. Furthermore, the current range of definitions for POH fail to correlate the size of the hernia with severity of symptoms. The decision for elective surgical intervention in patients with POH is based predominantly on the clinician’s interpretation of the patient’s reported symptoms and impact on QOL.
Through a recently published systematic review, we identified that there are symptoms not encompassed within these frequently used QOL tools. We have generated a symptom assessment tool; the para-oesophageal hernia symptom tool (POST) we aim to validate this against previously utilised QOL tools in a UK study.REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0028
Date of REC Opinion
21 Mar 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion