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First patient recruited for trial assessing whether the nail should be replaced or discarded after nail bed repair in children.

The Plastic and Hand Surgery community are working to develop a research portfolio and to improve the evidence used to guide their clinical practice. The first ever multi-centre plastic surgery trial run by the Reconstructive Surgery Trials Network is currently being led by our very own Associate Professor Abhilash Jain and coordinated by SITU, in NDORMS.  

The NINJA Pilot Study (funded by the British Society for Surgery of the Hand, BSSH) is a pragmatic multicentre study to assess whether the nail should be replaced or discarded after nail bed repair in children. The pilot will inform the design and conduct of a larger NINJA study with regards to recruitment, data collection and outcome measurement.

On Tuesday 21 April 2015, the first patient was recruited to the trial. The study team participating in the study in Hull, East Yorkshire beat their colleagues in Oxford, Guys & St Thomas' (London) and in Broomfield (Essex), to become the first centre to randomise a patient. All four sites involved in the trial are enthusiastic and have set up local procedures in attempts to capture appropriate patients and optimise recruitment.

NINJA Chief Investigator, Associate Professor Jain says: “This is the first Plastic and Hand Surgery trial to be run by the Reconstructive Surgery Trials Network, which was recently set up to deliver clinical research for both the association of Plastic Surgery (BAPRAS) and the association of Hand Surgery (BSSH). This represents a small but significant step forward for reconstructive surgery within the UK.”

As NINJA progresses we are also in the process of developing another trial for the plastics and hand surgery research portfolio. INDICATE will assess management options for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome and we hope to get started with a pilot study for this trial in the summer.

For further information about NINJA please go here.