The OTIS Study

Each year in the UK around 3,000 people have major surgery because their bladders are seriously diseased or must be removed. The most common reason is cancer in the bladder. Some surgical procedures are more complicated than others, but all involve using bowel segments to provide a system for storage and voiding of urine. The technically easiest way is to divert the urine either by using a segment of bowel to bring urine to a bag on the front of the abdomen, or by connecting the ureters (which normally carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder) to the large bowel. Morecomplex ways are to use pieces of bowel to patch into the bladder or replace it altogether. There is no ideal procedure. Problems such as urine leakage, bowel disturbance, and sexual dysfunction are common, and these often have a profound effect on people’s lives. Increasingly, surgeons are tending to recommend the more complex operations in the hope that these will provide a higher quality of life. But it is not clear which operation is best for different types of patient.

The OTIS study is research being led from Aberdeen and funded by BUPA Foundation. OTIS stands for Outcome after Transposed Intestinal Segment Surgery and aims to find out which is the best type of surgery for different types of patient. The wider implications for patients and the NHS will be studied in a formal economic evaluation of cost-effectiveness. 640 patients will be recruited from 18 UK centres over 18 months with a minimum follow-up time for each patient of at least a year.

Aberdeen is the lead coordinating centre of this national multicentre study.

 

For more information regarding The OTIS Study please contact Debbie Munro on 01224 438135 or email: dmunro@abdn.ac.uk