CompArison of Non-absorbable sutures Versus Absorbable sutures for Skin surgery

CANVAS validation

Validator FAQ

Background

Sutures are commonly used to close skin after excision of skin lesions. Currently, there are no guidelines or conclusive trials to determine if absorbable or non-absorbable sutures should be used.

Absorbable sutures may offer a better patient experience, avoid removal costs and exposure to COVID-19. However, the cost of sutures and complication rate may be more than non-absorbable sutures.

CANVAS short video

Question

In patients who have had skin surgery with primary closure on the body, including the head and neck, are superficial absorbable sutures non-inferior to superficial non-absorbable sutures with regards to patient-reported and physician-reported outcomes of the surgical scar, frequency of post-operative complications and health economics?

Project outline

  1. Clinician web survey.
  2. Service Evaluation (SE) and face-to-face clinician survey.
  3. CANVAS RCT (details separate).

How can I get involved?

CANVAS Service Evaluation and face-to-face clinician survey are open to collaborators. Doctors and nurses, students or professionals, working at hospitals or clinics in Australia and New Zealand can sign up. The study will also be run in coordination with teams in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Collaborators collect patient and clinician data during the study period. Data will be uploaded electronically to the REDCap system.

Responsibilities of a collaborator to be PubMed cited
  • Undertake a role as Data Collector or Principal Investigator.
  • Fulfil the role requirements as detailed in the study protocol.
  • Work as a team to register the study.
  • Record consecutive patients, undergoing surgery during the study period.
  • Collect and upload a minimum of 25 patients (this requirement will be per data collector). Score 60 points in total. Each submitted clinician survey receives 1 point and each complete data set for a patient receives 2 points. Each extra lesion per patient earns 1 point.
  • Upload a data set that is at least 95% complete.
  • Perform data validation on 2-5% of patients.

Benefits

  • Certificate outlining contribution to CANVAS SE.
  • PubMed citable ID on any subsequent publications relating to CANVAS SE
  • Collaborator acknowledgement on any presentations relating to CANVAS SE.
  • Local data set for presentation.

Sign up

We have written a Collaborator Guide with info about the study and an FAQ section, available in the download section on this page. Please read this before emailing us.

Check the sign up map. If your centre is shown below, email us.

Click here for sign up form

Status
[icon_list] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Project design [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Ethics approval [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Piloting [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Protocol development [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Data collection [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="square"] Data analysis [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="square-o"] Manuscript submission [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="square-o"] Publication [/icon_list_item] [/icon_list] Key:[icon_list] [icon_list_item type="square"] In progress [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="check-square-o"] Complete [/icon_list_item] [icon_list_item type="square-o"] Pending [/icon_list_item] [/icon_list]