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Patients experience a period of altered bowel function after the reversal of a temporary loop ileostomy. This study aimed to assess whether a probiotic preparation, VSL#3, improved bowel function during the first month after loop ileostomy reversal.

The longitudinal birth cohort study Environments for Healthy Living (EFHL) is designed to collect information from before birth through to 25 years of age across a spectrum of eco-epidemiological factors, including but not limited to, genetic material from cord-blood samples at birth, individual and familial factors to spatial data on the living environment. The EFHL study has had an annual four month recruitment of mothers since 2006. Detailed information on each participant is obtained at birth, 12-months, 3 years, five years and at subsequent three to five yearly intervals. Data collected is centred on both mother and child and includes questions about nutrition, parenting style, psychological factors, child behaviour, physical activity, attachment behaviours, quality of life, illnesses and injuries, health outcomes, utilisation of health care services, and socioeconomic factors (e.g. income, education, family structure and cultural identity). Findings will be used to identify where improvements can be made within the community to make health and lifestyle choices easier for families. The study will assist in discovering the best ways to reduce the major health problems facing Australians today, such as obesity, asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, injury, mental health and musculoskeletal disorders.

This study looks at the effectiveness of using fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging to guide therapy in people with newly diagnosed, advanced Hodgkin lymphoma. Who is it for? You may be able to join this study if you have previously untreated advanced Hodgkin lymphoma and are over 18 years of age. Trial details Participants receive 2 cycles of the standard chemotherapy regimen (ABVD) and then have a FDG-PET scan, which provides a 3 dimensional image of the lymphoma. Depending on the results of this and future scans, participants are assigned different courses of chemotherapy at various stages during the trial. The trial aims to see how the different treatments, which are guided by the results of FDG-PET imaging, affect survival rates, and also monitors any toxic effects of treatment.

This project has been designed to investigate whether one particular method of administering local anaesthetic around the knee in order to provide pain relief for patients undergoing foot surgery is better than the other. A routine part of anaesthesia for foot surgery performed in our unit is to perform a popliteal block. This involves injecting local anaesthetic around the nerves behind the knee to numb the foot and provide pain relief both during and after the operation. This block is performed either using an ultrasound machine to visualise the nerves or a nerve stimulator which stimulates the nerve. Both allow the anaesthetist to know the correct position to inject the local anaesthetic. We are planning to randomly allocate patients undergoing foot surgery to receive the block either with the ultrasound machine or with the nerve stimulator. We will then use a form to collect information about pain and pain relief requirements whilst the patient is in hospital to assess the efficacy of the block. We will also collect information about the length time to perform each block and patient satisfaction. Patients will be seen at routine follow up at 8 weeks and assessed to see if there are any ongoing problems related to the nerve block. We will analyse the data to see if one technique is superior to the other and modify our practise as appropriate.

This study looks at the effectiveness of the drug panobinostat in combination with 5-azacytidine in treating people who have recently been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Who is it for? You can join this study if you are aged 55 or greater and have recently been diagnosed with high risk myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukaemia, and you are unsuitable for or unwilling to undergo standard therapy. Trial details Participants will receive treatment with the anti-cancer drugs panobinostat (taken orally) and 5-azazytidine (administered via injection) over six 28 day cycles, On completion of this initial treatment, all patients not experiencing disease progression will receive further combination therapy with panobinostat and 5-azazytidine based on their degree of disease response. This will be followed by maintenance therapy with panobinostat alone. The study aims to determine the safety, tolerability and efficacy of treatment.

Currently knee replacement surgery is performed using alignment rods that correctly position the cutting blocks which guide bone cuts necessary to implant the metal and plastic total knee joint. Using a computer navigation system during surgery is considered the "gold standard" for guiding the cuts. Many surgeons however find this extends the time of the surgery for what is considered only a marginally better aligned knee and for much of the time the alignment is the same. These surgeons feel that the accuracy of the alignment of the total knee replacement without computer navigation is very good anyway and it is quicker to do. There is however new technology that has been developed that allows patient-specific cutting blocks, which are said to guide the cuts more accurately, to be manufactured based on a an MRI scan and x-ray of the affected knee taken before surgery. In this way it may be possible to have the accuracy of computer navigation in addtion to decreasing surgical time. This would be potentially good for the patients for a number of reasons including shorter operation time resulting in less chance of complications. In addition to this, less instuments will need to be used during surgery because the surgeon will already know the size of the knee replacement needed. This will reduce the cost of surgery while potentially increasing the accuracy. The current study will include 50 patients that have met the criteria for total knee replacement on the waiting list. The patients will require a pre-operative MRI and full-leg x-rays. Their surgery will be performed with the custom instrumentation. All bone cuts will be measured during surgery and compared to the bone cuts the MRI scan predicted. The surgeon can override the custom made blocks at any time and continue surgery in the conventional way if they feel the blocks are in any way inaccurate. The surgery time will vary but on average it should require approximately 80 minutes. The patients will require a post-operative computer tomography [CT] scan to evaluate the limb and implant alignment and information will be collected including pain levels, how far a person can walk and the affected knee's range of motion. This scan will be performed at least 6 weeks after surgery and the other information will be gathered before surgery and also at 3,6 and 12 months after surgery. Otherwise, the recovery and post-operative follow-up will be unchanged from that expected for routine knee replacement surgery. Our hypothesis is that the patient-matched instrumentation will align the bone cuts, implants, and the mechanical axis of the limb at least as well as would be expected using the conventional alignment rods, will cost less and on average speed up the surgery.

The primary study objective is to verify that under normal conditions of use the Coherex Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion System is a safe and effective LAA occlusion device. This investigation will be accomplished by: 1) implanting the device in patients with non-valvular paroxysmal, persistent, or permanent atrial fibrillation when anticoagulation is indicated for potential thrombus formation in the left atrium; 2) assessing LAA occlusion; and 3) monitoring adverse events at 45 days and/or up to one year post procedure. The study will also be designed to demonstrate the safety of the Coherex Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion System by assessing: 1) ease of successful device insertion; 2) positioning accuracy; 3) placement stability; and 4) post-procedure adverse events. To achieve this objective, data will be collected before, during, and after the procedure.

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate migration of the Hyperion uncemented femoral stem in primary total hip replacement using Radiostereometric Analysis (RSA). RSA will be performed at discharge, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 5 years following surgery

This is a randomized, open-label, 4-week trial. Twenty (20) eligible participants will be randomly allocated 1:1 to receive: i) ritonavir-boosted atazanavir (AZV 300mg / RTV 100mg) once daily for four (4) weeks OR ii) ritonavir-boosted darunavir (DRV 800mg / RTV 100mg) once daily for four (4) weeks Planned sample size: Twenty (20) eligible participants who complete the 4 week study

The purpose of this study is to test the safety and efficacy of a new treatment for COPD, HI-164OV, in participants with moderate to severe COPD. COPD (which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) causes irreversible damage to the lungs and is the most common respiratory disease in Australia affecting up to 1 in 10 people over the age of 45 years. Exacerbations of symptoms often require hospitalisation and happen most often during the winter months. HI-164OV is an oral vaccine tablet that contains killed non-typeable Haemophilus influenza bacteria, which are commonly found in the sputum of COPD patients. It is hoped that HI-164OV may help reduce the severity, duration and rate of exacerbations in COPD patients. The study is a multi-centre, placebo controlled, randomised, double blind study that will occur over 12 months. It is anticipated that 340 participants, aged 40-85 years, will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to receive either HI-164OV or placebo. Participants will be asked to take the study medication on three consecutive days each month for the first three months (ie. nine doses in total). Each daily dose of HI-164OV contains 90 mg of HI-164 or placebo. Participants will be asked to attend seven study visits over a nine month period, approximately, for safety and efficacy assessments. Participants will be asked to keep a daily diary during the study to record COPD exacerbation details. Safety will be assessed by collecting data on adverse events, routine clinical laboratory measurements (haematology, biochemistry and sputum), cardio-thoracic physical examination, ECG and vital signs. The efficacy of HI-164OV in reducing the rate and severity of exacerbations in comparison to placebo will be determined by measuring: 1. number of moderate to severe acute COPD exacerbations 2. number of days of antibiotic usage 3. duration of acute exacerbations 4. duration of moderate and severe exacerbations 5. hospitalisations 6. quality of life (using the validated St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire-C)