Clinical Research Directory

Evaluation of Seismocardiography(SCG) for Assessing Fitness and Predicting Outcomes in Oesophageal Cancer Surgery

Oesophageal cancer is a common cause of cancer death worldwide. Curative treatment involves chemotherapy and surgery but has significant risks. Therefore, patient selection and improving physical fitness to withstand such major treatment is important to reduce the risk of complications. Physical fitness is traditionally measured by a specialised exercise test called Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), which can take up to one hour and requires specialised staff and expensive equipment such as a graded exercise bike or treadmill. Seismofit is a small device (smaller than a smartphone) used to estimate fitness in patients in under three minutes while lying down at rest. It measures the vibrations generated by the heart and, together with patient height, weight, age, and gender, accurately estimates fitness using an algorithm developed in healthy patients. The device has never been tested in a large group of oesophageal cancer patients to see if it can be used to predict complications in patients undergoing cancer treatment. In this study, patients undergoing Oesophageal cancer treatment with chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy and surgery will have Seismofit measurements at various points during their treatment to see if we can predict complications and hospital stay. Secondly, this study will also evaluate the accuracy of Seismofit compared to the gold standard CPET results in cancer patients.

Perioperative Dynamics of Energy Expenditure in Oesophagectomy Patients

Carcinological oesophageal resection surgery is one of the so-called major digestive surgeries, i.e. involving a high perioperative risk (morbidity and mortality) in patients who are malnourished or at high risk of malnutrition. Nutritional therapy for these patients is an important part of overall perioperative management. Lewis-Santy oesophageal surgery requires a thoracic approach (thoracotomy or thoracoscopy) and an abdominal approach (laparotomy or laparoscopy). Resumption of oral feeding is contraindicated in the immediate postoperative period. The use of a feeding jejunostomy is not systematic. The methods used to manage artificial nutritional support vary between centres, but the foreseeable duration of fasting and/or intake of less than 50% of nutritional requirements is always greater than 5 days. At present, total energy requirements are calculated using formulae that take into account the patient's inflammatory state (stable, unstable or stabilised patient), theoretical ideal weight and previous nutritional status, in order to come as close as possible to actual energy expenditure, and are the subject of perioperative nutrition protocols specific to each centre. Indirect calorimetry makes it possible to reliably measure energy expenditure during the perioperative period. The OESOCAL study continues this line of reasoning. It assumes that energy expenditure may vary according to the surgical approach, and that indirect calorimetry can be used to optimise nutritional support in order to avoid over- or under-nutrition, which may be responsible for an increase in infectious complications.