The prevalence, nature and impact of perioperative long COVID symptoms
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The prevalence, nature and impact of perioperative symptoms in patients undergoing elective surgery during the COVID pandemic.
IRAS ID
291938
Contact name
Caroline Thomas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, days
Research summary
1 in 200 people in the UK currently have coronavirus (COVID-19) with many more previously affected. 10% of those with COVID-19 subsequently develop symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue. The waiting list for planned surgery has increased throughout 2020 partly as a result of the pandemic. Testing is more widely available than earlier in 2020; people on the waiting list may have either had COVID-19 or have developed long tail COVID-19 symptoms without a positive test result. There is currently no accurate UK data on longer term COVID-19 symptoms in the perioperative population. We would like to find out more about the recovery from operations in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have long tail COVID-19 symptoms. This is not to refuse operations for people with these symptoms or who have had COVID-19, but to better understand the needs and support the recovery of this patient group.
We will contact people on our waiting list for planned surgery and ask about previous COVID-19 infection and any ongoing symptoms. We will ask questions lasting around 10 min over the telephone following verbal consent about whether people have had COVID-19 and whether they have any long tail symptoms. We will ask what these long tail symptoms are and how they affect the person’s daily life. We will ask a brief series of questions to everyone on the waiting list before and after their operation to find out about mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. The last study contact will be 30 days after the operation. We will analyse the scores of two patient-reported outcome measure instruments (EQ5D and QoR15) to find out if there is difference between those who have had COVID-19 as well as to try to evaluate the impact of long tail COVID-19 symptoms.REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0458
Date of REC Opinion
5 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion