MAMA

MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS IN PREGNANCY (MAMA)

A multicentre service evaluation study

Background

  • Acute appendicitis is the most common general surgical condition encountered in pregnancy
  • No national guidelines from general surgical societies in the UK on the management of acute appendicitis in pregnancy
  • Aim: to describe national practice in the UK and identify variations in practice with regards to the managemet of acute appendicitis in pregnancy

Collaboration between two trainee-led research networks:
– White Rose Surgical Collaborative and
– UK Audit and Research Collaborative in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Methods

Retrospective study of the management of appendicitis in pregnancy from 01.10.2013 to 30.09.2023 inclusive

Team of collaborators at each site

  • One general surgical trainee/junior,
  • One obstetrics & gynaecology trainee/junior, and
  • One senior lead (consultant in General Surgery or Obstetrics and Gynaecology).
  • One of the two trainees/juniors will be the “Hospital Lead”, i.e. the point of contact at this site.
  • Two study components:
  • Site resource profile questionnaire – about the setup of services in your hospital. To be completed by senior lead
  • Retrospective data collection over the ten year period – uploaded to REDCap by one of the two trainees/juniors

How do I get involved?

See appendix IV within study protocol (“Checklist for successful inclusion of your centre”)
Step 1: Check if your hospital is already a participating centre:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FDdsetOOkZwd-NkRRH_mp-VdnO-qg8r1fxf4fnr_zRw/edit#gid=0
If not, fill out this form or email mama.study2024@gmail.com to join as your hospital lead.
Step 2: Register study and obtain approvals from:
– your local audit department AND
– your trust Caldicott Guardian to upload data to REDCap
Step 3: Email steering committee with evidence of both of the above to be issued with a REDCap login.

Step 4: Senior collaborator (consultant) to complete the “site resource profile” (online questionnaire)

Step 5: Request audit department to assist in pulling records for patients eligible for the study.
– Suggested search strategy to be used by coding department – appendix III of study protocol
– Eligibility criteria – section 4.3.1. on pages 11-12 of study protocol

Step 6: Contact your information governance team with the list of eligible patients. Request them to check which of the patients have opted out of their data being used for audit and research purposes (NHS National Data Opt-Out). Exclude them from the study

Step 7: Upload data to REDCap.A unique ‘REDCap ID’ is generated for each patient. Please keep a local cross-reference of hospital numbers.

Timeline