Postoperative respiratory failure: a case control study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Incidence, attributable risk and preventability of postoperative respiratory failure: a case control study

  • IRAS ID

    149376

  • Contact name

    Stephen Wright

  • Contact email

    stephen.wright@nuth.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

  • Research summary

    Postoperative respiratory failure is a serious complication which in a proportion of cases may be preventable. This complication has been used as a quality indicator in the USA for > 20 years as part of American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP)1 but its potential has not been explored in the UK NHS. At a local level we intend to assess whether postoperative respiratory failure could be a useful quality indicator in our hospital. For this we need to determine the incidence and clinical impact of postoperative respiratory failure, to identify any room for improvement in care, and to assess how many cases are potentially preventable. We also need to determine if existing clinical records and databases could be used to reliably identify patients developing this complication. To achieve this we propose a matched case-control study including a retrospective case notes review. If postoperative respiratory failure appears useful as a quality indicator this work will provide useful pilot data for development and validation at a national level.

  • REC name

    North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    14/NE/0074

  • Date of REC Opinion

    5 Mar 2014

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion