The ESCP Safe-anastomosis Programme in Colorectal Surgery (EAGLE) is an international, multi-centre, cluster randomised-sequence service improvement study of the ESCP Safe-anastomosis Quality Improvement Intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy and ileocaecal resection. Any hospital or surgical unit performing elective and/or emergency colorectal surgery may participate.
The study consists of interactive, online training modules for surgeons and theatre teams and will assess whether implementation of the ESCP safe-anastomosis intervention reduces risk of anastomotic leak rate.
The study programme has three main approaches:
- Preoperative risk stratification - making sure for each patient that anastomosis is safe for them
- Harmonisation of surgical technique - making the best anastomosis possible and checking it carefully after it is created
- Implementation of an intra-operative, anastomosis ‘checklist’ - focusing the attention of the whole theatre team at this critical stage of the operation.
Overall, we hope to reach out to more than 2,000 surgeons in over 300 hospitals across the world, including 4,500 patients in total.
The primary outcome is the 30-day overall anastomotic leak rate, defined as clinical or radiologically detected anastomotic leak or intra-abdominal or pelvic collection.
Latest News - December 2023
The EAGLE study is now complete and was delivered across 355 hospitals in 64 countries. More than 3,000 patients were entered into the study and more than 2,000 surgeons from across the world completed the EAGLE educational training modules. The study has been published in the British Journal of Surgery (BJS) and can be viewed at https://academic.oup.com/bjs/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bjs/znad370/7455707?login=false.
The EAGLE training platform is now available free of charge for surgeons around to world to use. You can access it at https://eagle-escp.eu.com/
Further information
- EAGLE Study Summary (PDF)
- EAGLE Study Protocol (PDF)
You can find out more about EAGLE and how to get involved, online at https://is.gd/EAGLEsitesetup where you can access the Site Set-up Pathway which is now live. We have a team of 22 coordinators ready to help support hospitals in setting up their sites for EAGLE.
ESCP Vienna 2019 videos
ESCP held a satellite symposium 'Reducing Anastomotic Leaks - the EAGLE has landed' at our conference in Vienna 2019. Videos of this session are freely-accessible to view:
- video EAGLE: study structure and design
- video EAGLE: background and intervention
- video EAGLE: management, logistics and how to get your site open
- video EAGLE Q&A
Newsletter
Download our EAGLE Newsletters for study updates and information:
- Issue 12: March 2022 (624kb PDF)
- Issue 11: February 2022 (222kb PDF)
- Issue 10: October 2021 (616kb PDF)
- Issue 9: July 2021 (650kb PDF)
- Issue 8: June 2021 (558kb PDF)
- Issue 7: May 2021 (428kb PDF)
- Issue 6: January 2021 (541kb PDF)
- Issue 5: November 2020 (457kb PDF)
- Issue 4: October 2020 (318kb PDF)
- Issue 3: February 2020 (760kb PDF)
- Issue 2: January 2020 (1.1MB PDF)
- Issue 1: December 2019 (1.3MB PDF)
