Audrius Dulskas, colorectal surgeon and surgical oncologist at National Cancer Institute of Vilnius, Lithuania, shares with the ESCP audience details on the recent ESCP audit for Faecal Incontinence.
Zoe Garoufalia (ZG): Dear Audrius, thank you for agreeing to this interview. The Faecal Incontinence Audit is ongoing and is a another huge project supported by the Society. But I have to ask:
why did you focus on faecal incontinence this time?
Audrius Dulskas (AD): Well this was the idea of one of our professors, working a lot with this issue Charlie Knowels. Searching for the literature on FI I noticed that there are a lot of knowledge gaps here.
ZG: How this audit will help current problems with treatment of patients suffering from faecal incontinence?
AD: first of all, there are a lot of knowledge gaps talking on FI. This is not an issue that most people or patients like to talk while drinking a cup of coffee. It is a very specific issue. So we do not know the exact incidence rates. We do not know the exact numbers, for example: how many patients do you see during your working hours in the clinic with FI. Moreover, we do not know of our possibilities to treat and to diagnose FI worldwide. This will be a baseline for future prospective studies. And probably unified diagnostic and treatment pathways worldwide.
ZG: Is it difficult to participate in this audit? Are there any specific requirements?
AD: The only specific requirement is to have this kind of patients. If you see them, you can be part of this audit.
ZG: What about ethics approval? Is this necessary?
AD: Yes, it is necessary.
ZG: How are you planning to utilize the results of this study? Is ESCP having any long term plans regrading this under investigated condition?
AD: The next step would be to access patients with similar condition – low anterior resection syndrome. Moreover, if we know the incidence and the possible weak areas for FI diagnostics, treatment, we can initiate future prospective studies on best tool to diagnose and of course to treat this dysfunction. Again, we can prepare the guidelines, for physicians worldwide.
ZG: This audit involves only European Centers? Or can International centres participate as well?
AD: Everybody dealing with FI incontinence is welcome to join.
ZG: Why should we participate in this audit?
AD: First, you (we) will get a broader knowledge of incidence of FI. Secondly, we will get the info of the diagnostic tool and treatment measure reach in different continents and countries. Non the least, you will be a collaborator and the co-author of the paper.
ZG: Thank you very much for you time and this very helpful information. To all the ESCP audience out there please make sure to register your Department and spread the word. As Dr. Dulskas suggested, true progress can be made only through collaboration.
AD: Thank you Zoe for a great talk and I just want to echo: please, join everybody and let’s make a change.