Surgery Clinical Trials

While blood clots after major cancer surgery are common and harmful to patients, the medications to decrease blood clot risk are seldom used after patients leave the hospital despite the recommendation of multiple professional medical societies. The reason why these medications are seldom prescribed is not well understood. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Does surgeon education paired with an electronic medical record based decision support tool improve the guideline concordant prescription of pharmacologic venous thromboembolism after abdominopelvic cancer surgery? * Does dedicated patient education regarding blood clots at the time of hospital discharge after abdominopelvic cancer surgery improve understanding of the risk of venous thromboembolism and adherence to pharmacologic prophylaxis? The investigators will study these questions using a stepped-wedge randomized trial where groups of surgeons will use a tool integrated to the electronic medical record to educate them on the individualized patient risks of blood clots after major cancer surgery and inform them regarding guidelines for preventative medicines. Utilization of the medications before and after using the tool will be compared. Patients will be administered a questionnaire assessing their awareness of blood clots as a risk after cancer surgery. For those prescribed medications to reduce blood clot risk after leaving the hospital, the questionnaire will evaluate whether they took the medications as prescribed. Survey results will be evaluated before and after implementation of education on blood clot risk at the time of hospital discharge. Read Less

The goal of this clinical trial is to test problem solving therapy (PST) in older adults who are undergoing major surgery. The main question it aims to answer is: • What is the feasibility and acceptability of delivering PST to older surgical patients with depressive symptoms or report lacking social support in the pre-operative and post-operative setting? Read Less

This is a case series study using gastric ultrasound in critically ill patients to quantify gastric residual volumes to compare the efficacy of different NPO protocols. Read Less

The objective of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a pragmatic clinical trial randomizing patients to permissive hypotension versus usual care and to determine the impact of permissive hypotension on vasopressor exposure, ICU length of stay, markers of end organ perfusion, and clinically relevant patient outcomes. The data collected from this pilot study will be used as preliminary data for study design and grant applications for a larger multicenter randomized controlled trial. Read Less

The COgnitive and Physical Exercise to improve Outcomes after Surgery (COPE-iOS) study is testing the hypothesis that a pragmatic program combining computerized cognitive training and physical training throughout the perioperative period will improve long-term cognitive and disability outcomes in older surgical patients at high risk for decline. To accomplish these goals, the Investigators are randomizing 250 patients ≥60 years old undergoing elective major non-cardiac surgery with expected hospitalization ≥3 days to a pragmatic comprehensive training program (computerized cognitive training and supervised progressive physical exercise) or to active control (control computer game, stretching exercises) for 2-4 weeks prior to surgery and for 3 months after discharge. At baseline and after discharge, the Investigators will assess global cognition, activities of daily living, depression, endothelial and blood brain barrier function (blood biomarkers), and neuroimaging (anatomical and functional MRI). In this early stage trial, the Investigators will determine if certain subgroups benefit most, program aspects with greatest effect on outcomes, mechanistic associations with outcomes, and additional exploratory analyses. Read Less

Preoperative therapy has not been well studied in resectable glioblastoma. This study attempts to prospectively assess the feasibility and efficacy of preoperative chemo radiation in improving local control, as this is the predominant mode of failure in these patients leading to poor outcomes. This Phase II study design would be used to proceed with the study treatment after meeting pre-specified events in the initial phase, with goal being to determine whether the new treatment paradigm is sufficiently promising to warrant a major controlled clinical evaluation against the standard therapy. Read Less

This is a prospective randomized blinded controlled trial that will enroll 175 subjects undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass at NorthShore University HealthSystem. The purpose of this study is to compare clinical outcomes in elective and urgent cardiac surgical patients at NorthShore University HealthSystem when receiving sugammadex, a common neuromuscular blockade reversal drug given after surgery and before the breathing tube is removed vs. those patients who do not receive sugammadex (placebo) group. The Investigators will compare the following outcomes in both the sugammadex and placebo groups during patients hospital stay: # of patients who have the breathing tube removed within 6 hour of the end of surgery, time it takes to remove the breathing tube after surgery, ICU and hospital length of stay, cost of the ICU stay, time to achieve a train of four ratio of > or equal to 0.9, whether patients develop pneumonia or not, whether they require the breathing tube to be replaced during their hospital stay and to compare the nursing perception of patients recovery within first 24 hours of their ICU stay. Read Less

The risk of developing a blood clot occurs in up to 60% of all critical care patients. Many times enoxaparin (or Lovenox) is given to patients who are at a higher risk of developing clots in their legs or lungs. There are two standard doses of enoxaparin that are recommended by the drug companies. These two doses have never been directly compared in trauma, general, and vascular surgery patients. The purposes of this study are: to compare the development of blood clots in patients receiving 30mg twice daily of enoxaparin compared to patients receiving 40mg once daily of enoxaparin. to determine if there is higher risk of bleeding complications in patients receiving 30mg twice daily of enoxaparin compared to patients receiving 40mg once daily. Patients enrolled into the study will be randomized to receive enoxaparin, 30mg twice daily or enoxaparin, 40mg once daily. Patients will then be monitored for signs and symptoms of blood clots. At the time of discharge (or before, if medically indicated), an ultrasound test will be performed to look for blood clots in the patient's legs. The investigators will compare incidence of blood clots formed between the 2 groups of patients to determine if one dose of enoxaparin relates to a lower rate of blood clots in critically ill patients. The investigators will also compare the incidence of bleeding complications between the 2 groups. Read Less

In this study the investigators will evaluate the acceptability of a communication intervention for fecal ostomy surgery (CI-oSurg) to address the needs of adults who are undergoing fecal ostomy surgery. The investigators will recruit 24 patients and 4 clinicians (surgical nurses, wound ostomy nurses). At least half of patients are 65 years or older to understand the unique needs of older adults recovering from fecal ostomy surgery that might impact intervention acceptability. Questionnaires will be administered at two time-points for patient participants: upon study start and 4 weeks after exposure to the intervention. Read Less

The objective of this study is to compare open and minimally invasive pancreatic and liver resection techniques and analyze the different outcome variables from the clinical standpoint. The plan is to investigate patient survival, length of stay, complication rates, operative time, transfusion rate, 30 and 90-day readmission rate, and hospital charges. Read Less

This study will be a prospective randomized study to evaluate the effect of tranexamic acid (TXA) use on intraoperative and postoperative outcomes among patients undergoing rhinoplasty by two Facial Plastic surgeons at Vanderbilt. Outcomes will include intra- and post-operative bleeding and postoperative bruising and swelling. Read Less

Hysteroscopic surgery is widely used for the treatment of gynecological diseases, such as septum, synechiae, polyp and intrauterine fibroids. The complication rate is estimated as 0.22% and includes uterine perforation, massive bleeding, and fluid overload. Operative hysteroscopy intravascular absorption (OHIA) syndrome refers to fluid overload complications from operative hysteroscopies and is considered a major complication. Report describing the clinical association between irrigation fluid temperature to intravasation rate itself or the risk of fluid overload are limited mainly to theoretical models. Due to the aforementioned, we aim to evaluated the role of temperature on absorption of the irrigation solution in hysteroscopic surgery. Read Less