Veterinary Surgery Research Topics

• Encourages the creation of new project ideas of interest to ARC members, both during the meetings and online
• Refines study ideas at the onset to make them achievable, interesting and scientifically-robust, including the planning of appropriate statistical analyses
• Helps with the Ethical Review submission to the RCVS
• Seeks to identify funding sources for individual projects and advertise these to ARC members
• Launches multicentre clinical studies and advertises them to ARC members and those outside the Cooperative via emails, discussion forums, social media, AVSTS and other meetings
• Assists with the recruitment of individual vets, practices and hospitals for their cases
• Actively promotes each study during the data-gathering process
• Assists with statistical analysis
• Coordinates multi-author simultaneous reviews during the preparation of manuscripts for publication
• Offers the opportunity for work to be presented at AVSTS meetings
• Obliges the publication of all results

• Become an ARC member! See the above for more information.
• Take an active part in our mailing list discussions, forum and social media
• Attend AVSTS meetings and contribute to the discussions among our veterinary community.
• Submit an idea to arc.avsts@gmail.com for a study you'd like to see done, even if you don't think you'll be able to run it yourself – as a general rule, if YOU are interested in something, then so will it be to a lot of other people. The more ideas, the better!
• Contribute to an existing study by adding your case data (see below)
• If you are already carrying out a clinical research project yourself, why not use ARC to make it multicentre? Bigger is better in many ways (More cases, quicker case accumulation, etc), and ARC can take the pain away from the headaches multicentre studies can bring.

In truth, this can be more difficult than it sounds. Fortunately, there are a number of resources which can assist, including:

• Toolkit for framing research questions https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/evidence-based-veterinary-medicine/ebvm-toolkit/
• Guidelines for reporting clinical research http://www.equator-network.org/
• Asking a research question:
• Thabane, L., Thomas, T., Ye, C., et al. (2009) Posing the research question: not so simple. Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia 56, 71–79
• http://www.cebm.net/asking-focused-questions/
• ARC is especially interested in answering PICOT-based questions, using prospective randomised controlled trials, or prospective controlled cohort studies. However, in many situations a large retrospective case series still represents a great leap forward in terms of the information available in the veterinary literature. All study designs will be considered.

Another starting point is using the work of others who have already looked into the subject matter and reviewed all the literature for you. This can help to identify the hole that needs to be filled.

• Database of veterinary systematic reviews http://webapps.nottingham.ac.uk/refbase/
• Database of veterinary BestBets https://bestbetsforvets.org

Here's how it works:

• Email arc.avsts@gmail.com to make first contact with your idea, no matter if it's just an idea, or if you've already advanced the idea well beyond the initial stage
• An email conversation will ensue, between you, Erika Villedieu, Daniela Murgia and Ian Nicholson, to clarify exactly what it is you wish to test or demonstrate, how you wish to do it, and whether these two things match up. This process should allow a specific and realistic project to grow
• The project, along with any pilot work you've done such as a literature review, and/or using someone else's systematic review (see above), and/or reviewing your own cases retrospectively, can be presented to the AVSTS members at the next spring or autumn meeting, along with your project plan – to advertise it, and to refine it from audience feedback, plus to gain insight into the case accrual rate from a show of hands as to who sees how many cases of that type.

By the end of this process, you will need to fill out/provide:

• ARC Application Form Template
• RCVS Ethical Approval form
• A data table template (Excel) for vets to download and fill in their data for you
• An owner consent form (if appropriate)
• Once the project is green-lighted by the RCVS and ARC, the documents above will be emailed to the ARC membership and made available on this website
• Depending on the uptake, further promotion may be undertaken as needed, led by the lead author, until the case requirements are met, an appropriate time period has passed, or until it becomes clear that there is insufficient interest or case-load to make the study a success
• Once the study stops gathering data the lead author is in charge of coordinating presentation and publication, with help from the ARC Committee, both of which are expected. All vets submitting data are considered as co-authors, provided they continue to participate in every round of manuscript review before submission and whilst under review for an appropriate journal. If they do not wish to continue to contribute to the manuscript they will no longer be considered as co-authors, however their work will be acknowledged in the published manuscript.

• Indications, outcome and complications with axial pattern skin flaps in dogs and cats: 73 cases. E. J. Field, G. Kelly, D. Pleuvry, J. Demetriou, S. J. Baines. JSAP 2015.
• Parotidectomy for the treatment of parotid sialocoele in 14 dogs. J. L. J. Proot, P. Nelissen, J. F. Ladlow, K. Bowlt Blacklock, N. Kulendra, B. de la Puerta, and D. E. Sheahan.  JSAP 2017.
• The incidence of surgical site dehiscence following full-thickness gastrointestinal biopsy in dogs and cats and associated risk factors. F. Swinbourne, N. Jeffery, M.S. Tivers, R. Artingstall, F. Bird, T. Charlesworth, I. Doran, A. Freeman, J. Hall, R. Hattersley, J. Henken, J. Hughes, B. de la Puerta, L. Rutherford, T. Ryan, H. Williams, S. Woods, I. Nicholson. JSAP 2017.
• The chemical and ultra-structural analysis of thin plastic films used for surgical attenuation of portosystemic shunts in dogs and cats. E. Field, D.J. Scurr ,  M.J. Piggott , T.S. Anderson, G.P. Chanoit. Research in Veterinary Science 2019.
• Is the caudal auricular axial pattern flap robust? A multi-centre cohort study of 16 dogs and 12 cats (2005 to 2016). J. L. J. Proot, N. Jeffery, W. T. N. Culp, P. Buracco, B. de la Puerta, J. M. Williams, J. F. Ladlow, E. J. Field, P. Nelissen, R. A. Ragni, J. F. A. Pope, S. J. Baines, J. M. Liptak, I. Nicholson. JSAP 2019.
• Long-term clinical outcomes following surgery for spontaneous pneumothorax caused by pulmonary blebs and bullae in dogs – a multicentre (AVSTS Research Cooperative) retrospective study. C. L. Howes, J. P. Sumner, K. Ahlstrand, R. J. Hardie, D. Anderson, S. Woods, D. Goh, B. de la Puerta, H. N. Brissot, S. Das, M. Nolff, L. Liehmann, G. Chanoit. JSAP 2020.
• Superficial temporal axial pattern flap for facial reconstruction of skin defects in dogs and cats. B. de la Puerta, P. Buracco, J. Ladlow, T. Emmerson, S. Del Magno, E. Field, S. Baines. JSAP 2021
• Outcome of caudal superficial epigastric axial pattern flaps in dogs and cats: 70 cases (2007-2020). K. Forster, L. S. Cutando, J. Ladlow, D. Anderson, C. Burton, S. Das, S. Gibson, N. Kulendra, T. Emmerson, S. Baines, L. Rutherford, R. D. Paulino, R. Fontanini, K. Compagnone, B. De La Puerta. JSAP 2022
• Outcome of superficial brachial axial pattern flaps used to close skin defects in dogs: 16 cases (1996-2019). E. Villedieu, M. C. Nolff, S. Del Magno, T. Emmerson, E. Field, R. Hattersley, B. De La Puerta, R. A. Ragni, S. J. Baines. JSAP 2022
• Colonic perforation in 4 dogs following treatment with meloxicam. M.J. Longley, S.J. Baines, G. Chanoit . Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care 2022.