Do you want to help to research an increasingly important clinical question in IBD? Do you want to get involved in a large national collaborative project with PubMed-cited collaborative authorship? 

SABRE-IBD (Exploring the SAfety of perioperative Biologics for patients undeRgoing Elective surgery with Inflammatory Bowel Disease) is a multicentre, multispecialty project aiming to understand whether the use of biologics or small molecules in the perioperative period affects rates of post-operative complications or IBD flares. 

There seems to be heterogeneous practice around the continuation, pausing or cessation of advanced IBD therapies for patients undergoing both IBD-related and non-IBD-related elective surgery. This is because there is little strong evidence or guidance about this and randomised studies in this area are hard to conduct. However, increasing numbers of patients require long-term advanced therapies to manage their IBD. Gastroenterologists, surgeons and anaesthetists, alike, therefore need more evidence about how to manage these medications perioperatively to ensure that post-operative complications and post-operative IBD flares are minimised. This is particularly important for non-IBD surgery, for which very little research exists. 

SABRE-IBD is a trainee-led study that is endorsed by the British Society of Gastroenterology and the Royal College of Surgeons of England and managed by Birmingham Centre for Observational and Prospective Studies (BiCOPS), with funding from the BSG and Guts UK. All clinicians, including specialist nurses and pharmacists, from both medical and surgical specialties are encouraged to take part. Participants will initially collect retrospective data about IBD patients in their trust who have undergone all types of moderate-to-major elective surgery (defined in the study protocol), including details about pre-operative IBD medications, any post-operative complications and patients’ IBD activity. From February 2024, participants will also be asked to collect data prospectively for patients undergoing surgery in the subsequent 6 months. All data will be collected anonymously on REDCap. 

As of September 2024, 25 sites across the UK have registered and information for over 500 patients has been recorded! With the start of the new academic year, we're now hoping to increase the number of sites, get more trainees and colleagues involved, and accelerate data capture!

Gastroenterology teams will be encouraged to link with different surgical subspecialty colleagues so that each can contribute and help to identify eligible patients. Each trust will have a lead ‘junior’ clinician with supervising gastroenterology and/or surgical consultants. Participation will be recognised under a corporate authorship model and there is opportunity to contribute to data analysis and manuscript writing. The study will be promoted via the BSG, the RCSEng and its Surgical Specialty Leads and trainee representatives, and relevant medical and surgical trainee research collaboratives.

If you would like to take part, please register here or the QR code below, where you can also find the study protocol. The study can be registered via your local Audit Department and will not require R&D approval, and a template document is available via the link above to facilitate this. If you have any questions, please contact us via [email protected]. We look forward to working with you on this exciting project!

Best wishes, 

SABRE-IBD study team 

Dr Aamir Saifuddin, Dr Eleanor Liu, Miss Roxanna Zakeri, Miss Elizabeth Li, Prof Shaji Sebastian 

X: @SABRE_IBD