The impact of emergency laparotomy for people living with frailty
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What is the lived experience following emergency laparotomy for older people living with frailty?
IRAS ID
313436
Contact name
Angeline Price
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northern Care Alliance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 27 days
Research summary
This research aims to understand the impact of emergency laparotomy on older
people living with frailty. An emergency laparotomy is a big operation that opens the
abdomen. Reasons for an emergency laparotomy include a burst or blocked bowel.
Every year 30,000 people in the UK have an emergency laparotomy. Half of these
people are aged 65 years or above. Unfortunately, older adults are more likely to die orhave problems following the surgery. These risks are even higher if that person is frail.
Frailty is a chronic condition caused by a build-up of other health problems. People
who are frail rely on others to help with day-to-day activities. The more frail a person becomes, the less strength they have to recover from an illness or injury. A quarter of older people having anemergency laparotomy are frail and the risk of death afterwards is high. Those who survive tend to spend a long time in hospital. Many need carers or a move into a care home when discharged from hospital.
Most research into emergency laparotomy only looks at first 90-day. We don't know what happens after this, or how the operation impacts on people’s lives once they leave hospital or how well they recover from the surgery. We need to know more so that we can improve the experience and reduce the risk of problems occurring at home.
In this study, patients who have had an emergency laparotomy will be invited to be
involved in telephone or face-to-face interviews. They will be asked to talk about theirexperience of emergency laparotomy. Some of these patients will be contacted every few months for a year.
This information will help us to better understand the experience of emergency
laparotomy from the patient’s point of view. It will help us to provide patients with
information on what to expect after the surgery and what we can do to improve
recovery.REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0210
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion