All Clinical Trials in Canada

Hernia repair surgery is common, especially the Shouldice repair for primary inguinal hernias, which is considered a top-notch nonmesh technique. However, outcomes can vary, possibly due to differences in surgical skill and experience. Many surgeons are trained more in mesh repairs like the Lichtenstein technique, rather than nonmesh repairs like Shouldice. Understanding a surgeon's learning curve-how many surgeries they need to do to become proficient-is crucial. Yet, there's not much research on this for the Shouldice repair. This project aims to fill that gap and improve surgeon education. The study's goal is to find out how the learning curve affects Shouldice repair for primary inguinal hernias. They'll look at how operative time changes over a surgeon's first 300 repairs compared to their 900-1000th. They'll also check for complications and recurrence rates. The study objectives are: 1. Explore the learning curve and factors affecting Shouldice repair. 2. Compare operative times between a surgeon's early and later surgeries. 3. Look at complications during the learning curve. 4. Determine how long training takes at Shouldice Hospital and the surgeons' previous experience. 5. Review recurrence rates between the first 300 and 900-1000 surgeries. This research aims to give surgeons and the hernia community valuable insights into improving surgical techniques and patient outcomes. Read Less

Enhancing the anabolic effect of nutrition in critically ill patients by administering exogenous amino acids. Read Less

This is a prospective research study which will include patients who have progressed on immunotherapy as their most recent line of therapy. This study aims to characterize whether patients who fail to respond to immunotherapy versus patients who respond initially but after a period of time progress demonstrate different genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic, immunophenotyping profiles. Patients will have a one-time fresh tumor biopsy. Serial blood samples (total amount of blood drawn may not exceed the lesser of 50 mL or 3 mL/kg in an 8 week period), archival tissue (if available) and one stool sample will be collected. Read Less

With the rapid shift to virtual care, this pilot study aims to determine the feasibility of prescribing low-duration, interval-based training through virtual care. If successful, this study will inform a larger randomized control trial to determine if the prescription of low-duration interval-based training improves chronic disease through the measurement of hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C), and weight to a greater extent than the general guideline to aim for 150 minutes of PA weekly. Read Less

Move\&Connect is an interdisciplinary group-based program co-designed with youth and caregivers that provides skills training, mental health support, and psychoeducation to caregivers and combines these tenets with active rehabilitation for youth with concussion. Read Less

Gold standard for neuromuscular blockade evaluation is accelerometry in three dimensions at the thumb. There are many times that measurement at the hand can be falsely under-estimated intraoperatively secondary to constriction of the upper extremities. We believe that installing the same accelerometer at the first toe will give us similar readings for both neuromuscular blockade and recovery from rocuronium administration. This study focuses on agreement values between two accelerometers installed on the hand and at on the foot. Read Less

Women with breast cancer treated using anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) following treatment completion. Exercise is known to reduce CVD risk in healthy and several clinical populations, but, whether existing cardiac rehabilitation programs can be leveraged to reduce CVD risk in breast cancer survivors is unknown. This study aims to: i) understand the feasibility of virtual versus in-person cardiac rehabilitation in breast cancer survivors; and ii) compare the effect of virtual versus in-person cardiac rehabilitation on cardiovascular function and injury biomarkers, physical fitness, and psychosocial health. 50 breast cancer survivors with increased CVD risk will be recruited and randomized to either the in-person or virtual arm of the cardiac rehabilitation program at Women's College Hospital (WCH). Data will be collected at baseline, following program completion, and 6-months after program completion. The primary outcomes are measures of study feasibility. Other clinically relevant outcomes to be collected include: i) imaging and blood-based biomarkers of cardiovascular function; ii) physical fitness; iii) objective and self-reported physical activity levels; and iv) self-reported measures of psychosocial wellbeing. These findings will be used to inform the design of a larger-scale cardio-oncology trial and will facilitate development of more comprehensive CVD risk management strategies for breast cancer survivors at WCH. Read Less

Hypotension is one of the most common adverse effects of spinal anesthesia for cesarean deliveries, affecting as many as 55-90% of mothers. Hypotension during cesarean deliveries can have detrimental effects on the mother and neonate. Various vasopressors, such as ephedrine, phenylephrine and more recently norepinephrine, have been used for the prevention and treatment of hypotension at cesarean deliveries. Ephedrine was historically considered as the gold standard vasopressor for the management of hypotension during cesarean deliveries. This was based on studies in animal models that showed preserved uteroplacental circulation with ephedrine and not with phenylephrine. However, multiple studies in the past several decades have shown that phenylephrine compared with ephedrine results in a more favorable fetal acid-base status. Consequently, the use of phenylephrine for blood pressure management during cesarean deliveries increased. Recently, norepinephrine was introduced in the obstetrical practice for the management of hypotension at cesarean deliveries, due to its ability to maintain maternal cardiac output better than phenylephrine. Studies have also investigated the use of vasopressin to limit hypotension during CD. There have been case reports of successful vasopressin usage to treat post-spinal hypotension after CD in patients with advanced idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension as well as severe mitral stenosis with pulmonary hypertension. Its effect was associated with hemodynamic stability without evidence of harm to the mother or child. However, much controversy still exists surrounding the choice of vasopressor in the obstetric population, in large part due to their varying efficacies, and maternal and fetal effects. Vasopressors used for the treatment of hypotension during cesarean deliveries can have significant direct or indirect effects on the perfusion of uteroplacental and umbilical vessels. Reduction of uteroplacental perfusion and constriction of umbilical vessels can result in fetal acidosis, however, the mechanisms for these effects are unclear. The investigators hypothesize that ephedrine, phenylephrine and norepinephrine and vasopressin have variable effects on the contractility of pregnant myometrium and umbilical arteries due to their variable actions on adrenergic alpha (α) and beta (β) receptors, as well as vasopressin1 and vasopressin2 receptors located in these tissues. Read Less

MANTRA is a prospective, multiple-arm, multi-center, global, post-market clinical follow-up study. The main objective is to monitor ongoing safety and performance of the CORCYM devices and accessories used for aortic, mitral and tricuspid valvular diseases in a real-world setting. Corcym S.r.l., is a medical device manufacturer with a broad product portfolio for cardiac surgeons, offering solutions for the treatment of aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve disease. The MANTRA Master Plan (Master Protocol) is intended as an overarching Umbrella Protocol that allows multiple sub-studies to be added, as needed. The Umbrella Master Protocol concept offers an excellent solution to provide post-marketing clinical follow-up information on the entire cardiac surgery heart valve portfolio of the sponsor in a common database, including corelab assessment of hemodynamic and structural performance, annular motion and Dynamics for one of the products. Currently, three sub-studies are planned: * MANTRA - Aortic Sub-Study * MANTRA - Mitral/Tricuspid Sub-Study (Excluding Memo 4D) * MANTRA - Memo 4D Sub-Study Read Less

The PLAN-V Study is an Ontario-based prospective, longitudinal study that will consist of extensive biosampling and detailed data collection from pregnant women/individuals, who have received the COVID-19 vaccine during their pregnancy, and their infants across the antenatal, delivery and postpartum periods. Read Less

The study is an extension of two parent studies (MLN0002-3024 \[NCT04779307\] and MLN0002-3025 \[NCT04779320\]). Participants must have participated in one of the previous studies. The purpose of this study is to collect the long-term safety of vedolizumab in children with UC or CD. Read Less

The goal of this study is improve the screening of heart failure and identify patients early who are at risk of heart failure. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are: • will an electronic health records (EHR) case finding algorithm for heart failure, followed by N-Terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) screening and artificial intelligence (AI) echocardiogram compared to usual care identify patients at risk for heart failure earlier than standard of care? Participants will be enrolled and randomized to either standard of care (SOC) or intervention arm: SOC arm: electronic health records will be reviewed over six months for assessments performed to identify heart failure. Intervention arm: blood sample for N-terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) at local laboratory . For elevated NT-proBNP results (\>125pg/ml) an artificial intelligence (AI) echocardiogram and 12 lead electrocardiogram (ECG) will be performed at study site (within 28 days of NT-proBNP result). EHR will be reviewed at six months Read Less