NNUH anaesthetists take part in new national research

Anaesthetists at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital are taking part in a new national research project aimed at improving the care of older patients having surgery.

A team of doctors at NNUH are taking part in the Royal College of Anaesthetists-run SNAP3 project, which will run for the next two weeks.

The study is investigating the effects of frailty on outcomes in surgery and will look at both the long-term and short-term effects, including post-operative delirium, an uncommon but distressing condition which is much more likely to happen to older patients.

The NNUH team is led by Consultant Anaesthestist Dr Melanie Maxwell, trainee anaesthetist Dr David Brooks and Anaesthetic Research Lead Dr Caroline Reavley, assisted by Dr Navena Navaneetharaja from the Department of Older People’s Medicine, a team of anaesthetic trainees and Norwich medical student James Long.

Dr Maxwell said: “NNUH has one of the busiest surgical departments in the country and we will be a major contributor to this study. As always, our patients seem only too pleased to help and we have recruited many more participants than predicted, amongst the highest of any hospital in the UK so far.”

Nationally, over 170 hospitals are taking part in SNAP3 and the aim is to collect data from 12,000 patients. The study will also be running in Australia and New Zealand later this year.

Dr Reavley added: “Such strong national and international collaborations drive good quality research and by collecting accurate data from tens of thousands of participants across the continents, we will achieve meaningful results which really make a difference to the care we provide for our surgical patients.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our patients for giving up their time to take part and well done to the SNAP3 Anaesthesia team at NNUH.”