Request from NICE

23/12/2009

Request to participate in an audit of the management of the open abdomen in order to investigate the occurrence of intestinal fistulae with and without negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT).

Concern has been expressed to NICE about the incidence of fistulae in patients managed with an open abdomen and whether NPWT (or the way in which it is applied) may be a contributory factor. In response to this concern, NICE and the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) of the University of Aberdeen are organising a national audit to gather further information.

If you are a Clinical Director, Clinical Governance lead or a Tissue Viability nurse in a hospital with ITU facilities, you should have received a letter in December  which  provided more information about the audit. Your participation is essential for us to address this potentially serious health concern.

We need anonymised data on all patients with an open abdomen between 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2011 (whether treated with NPWT or not) to be submitted to https://viis.abdn.ac.uk/HSRU/OpenAbdomen. This portal is being managed by Gladys McPherson at the HSRU of the University of Aberdeen.

We request that you please email Gladys McPherson at g.mcpherson@abdn.ac.uk with details of your hospital and a nominated lead that will be responsible for electronic data submission to the portal. At least one individual is required from each hospital with ITU facilities. Login details for access to the web site will then be provided.

The NICE audit tool and guidance on NPWT for the open abdomen are available at www.nice.org.uk/IPG322.