Lay summary
I am a medical doctor commencing a PhD with the Department of Surgery at the University of Auckland. My aim is to develop a career in academic colorectal surgery. The focus of my research is on postoperative ileus (POI), building upon recent high-impact publications by our institution. POI remains a significant burden for both patients and the healthcare system, prolonging discharge time and increasing cost of hospital stay. My thesis will begin with a systematic review of inflammation in POI and network meta-analysis of all interventions for POI. My overall goal is to test a novel serotonin agonist, prucalopride, in the prevention if POI using a randomised controlled trial. The significance of prucalopride is that it has both prokinetic and anti-inflammatory actions in the bowel. In addition, I plan to further elucidate the normal physiology of the bowel and its response to surgery using recent advances in high-resolution manometry recordings.