Management of post-operative anaemia in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer: a qualitative focus group-based study.
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Authors
Lawday, Samuel
Williams, Susannah
James, Elizabeth
Court, Emma L
Carter, Fiona
Rushton, Francesca
Dampier, Cat
O'Malley, E J
Barrington, M
Bethune, Rob
Issue Date
2025-01-15
Type
Journal Article
Language
en
Keywords
Anaemia , Colorectal , Focus group , Postoperative , Qualitative
Alternative Title
Abstract
Background: Optimal management of anaemia following surgery for colorectal cancer remains unclear. Peri-operative anaemia is common in patients undergoing resectional surgery for colorectal cancer. A significant amount of research has been conducted into the management of pre-operative anaemia; however, little work has investigated post-operative anaemia. We intended to investigate the facilitators of and barriers against the standardised correction of post-operative anaemia. These can aid in identifying optimum treatment for patients following surgery for colorectal cancer.
Methods: Four focus groups were held with 29 participants from a multidisciplinary panel of healthcare professionals from two different NHS hospital sites in the UK. The discussions were audio recorded and underwent professional transcription. Transcripts were checked against recordings before undergoing thematic analysis using a realist approach.
Results: Four themes were identified. The key barriers to standardised post-operative anaemia correction were a lack of protocoled guidelines or a defined pathway, insufficient education and training, and systemic barriers, such as financial drivers and drug availability. The key facilitator identified was collaboration and communication.
Discussion: This study has identified several key barriers and thresholds which can be used in future studies to improve the standardised management of post-operative anaemia.
Description
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Citation
Lawday, S. et al. (2025) 'Management of post-operative anaemia in patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer: a qualitative focus group-based study', International Journal of Colorectal Disease 40(1) 14. Available At: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00384-024-04794-6
Publisher
Springer Nature
License
© 2025. Crown.
Journal
International journal of colorectal disease
Volume
40
Issue
1
PubMed ID
ISSN
1432-1262