Revolutionary pouch report puts St Mark’s Hospital top of the league

Here are some key findings about pouches and pouchcare from the frontline – i.e the UK’s and Europe’s leading surgeons and specialist bowel centres.

(You can download the full report from the image on the left).

St Mark’s Hospital carries out more pouch operations than any other hospital in the UK and Europe – with Universitair Ziekenhuis Leuven in Brussels second, Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital third and the Churchill Hospital, Oxford fourth.

These are the findings of a recent survey, the Ileoanal Pouch Report 2017, published in July 2017 by the Association of Coloprotoctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI).

The report covers the outcomes of more than 5,000 patients including 500 under-20s who have had pouch operations under the care of approximately 150 surgeons.

Among the report’s most significant findings are:

• Someone in the UK is diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis – the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) – every 30 minutes;
• At least 300,000 people in the UK have IBD in one form or another;
• About one-in-four people with UC will need an operation at some time during their lives, with pouch surgery being one of the most common procedures;
• The most popular type of pouch is the J-pouch, while the once-popular S-pouch and W-pouch have largely been phased out;
• Approximately one-third of today’s pouch operations are carried out laparoscopically – i.e with keyhole surgery;
• Most patients spend 10 days in hospital when they have a pouch operation. However, a surprisingly high 27.4% of patients need to be re-admitted within 30 days of their operation:
• Approximately 80% of pouch operations are successful and restore patients to a high quality of life;
• St Mark’s Hospital has carried out 159 operations in the past five years.

The report which was first published in 2012 makes the following key conclusions:

“There is clearly a compelling argument for centralisation of pouch surgery. The procedure is performed infrequently within a repertoire of surgical options available to patients having had a colectomy or needing proctocolectomy.”

“Intimate knowledge of all surgical options, considered experience in guiding patients to the option that may best suit them, and back-up from the specialised multi-disciplinary team is paramount in providing the best possible service for patients.”

“While there are undoubtedly some centres that are currently offering pouch surgery at low volume with good outcomes, this report indicates that they are probably the exception rather than the norm. And the future is likely to take a more pragmatic view when it comes to ensuring good outcomes and training the next generation of specialist surgeons.”

Like the first Ileoanal Pouch Report in 2012, the 2017 version is based on the latest data from the SWORD HES database and the Pouch Registry, a leading database set up by St Mark’s Hospital’s Emeritus Consultant Surgeon and Red Lion Patron Professor John Nicholls in 2015. The data is sourced from voluntary information supplied by half of the UK’s and Europe’s specialist bowel surgeons. surgeons.

You can download the full report from the Resource section of the Red Lion Group Web site.

Click here to Download.

This article appeared in ROAR! Issue 54: Christmas 2017.