Thursday 5th
December 2019
BCW Award funding to explore why hernias occur following colorectal surgery
We are delighted to award a £5000 research grant towards a valuable project lead by Exeter University and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital exploring why hernias occur following colorectal surgery.
The project is led by researcher and consultant colorectal surgeon Frank McDermott who explains a little more on what the project aims to achieve:
"During bowel surgery, it is sometimes necessary to form a stoma (a hole in the abdomen to let a piece of the bowel out onto the tummy). These can often cause problems, allowing other organs to come through (Parastomal hernia).
Some patients are thought to have a higher risk of developing hernias but we are not sure why. During routine surgery, we will collect “spare” bits of tissue (normally discarded) and a bloodsample. These samples will be stored so that the team can look for DNA changes and how ‘stretchy’ the tissue is.
This could help us to understand more about parastomal hernias and help us to target specific patients with special techniques to reduce the risk of problems after bowel surgery.
This grant is hugely welcome, and will allow us to obtain the initial findings we need to make a case for larger funding in this unknown area of research”
