U#3888_MH_ResearchReport (S)

Monash Health
Dr Thomas Suhardja,
Colorectal Research Fellow,
Department of Colorectal
Surgery, Dandenong Hospital,
Monash Health.
This research aims to analyse the
efficacy of the novel compound
Gabapentin, Amitriptyline, and
Lignocaine topical ointment in
providing any significant improvement
for the management of posthaemorrhoidectomy
pain, when
compared with conventional treatment.
Haemorrhoidectomy is a frequently
performed surgical procedure,
and pain following the procedure
is associated with considerable
morbidity. We aim to perform a
prospective randomised controlled
trial comparing conventional analgesia
to this new regime of compound
topical ointment. Our study will be
prospective and double-blinded,
with patients randomised to either
receiving the compound ointment or
placebo ointment, on top of receiving
the standard conventional posthaemorrhoidectomy
care.
We hypothesised that the added
compound topical ointment
will provide better posthaemorrhoidectomy
pain control, than
conventional treatment. The significant
benefit is aimed at improving posthaemorrhoidectomy
pain in the
acute and intermediate setting. This
consequently will likely reduce patients’
post-operative morbidity, length of
hospitalisation, and reduce the risk of
chronic pain.
Dr Jonathon Wong,
Haematology Research Fellow
This research aims to initiate a
pilot study for the development
and implementation of a rapid
comprehensive high-sensitivity assay
for targeted deep sequencing of cfDNA
to simultaneously survey for i) genomewide
copy number alterations, ii) point
mutations and indels in 35 oncogenes
and tumour suppressor genes linked
to lymphoma development, iii)
selected translocations and iv) VDJ
rearrangement. Our capacity to
detect these changes in cfDNA will be
benchmarked against variants detected
by whole exome sequencing (WES) on
prior biopsies obtained through the
MGHA Aggressive Lymphoma Flagship,
in which a cohort of 20-30 lymphoma
patients being treated at Monash
Health will have baseline annotation of
lymphoma specific mutations.
It is hypothesised that the monitoring
of tumour response (i.e. MRD tracking)
to targeted drugs is critical to
anticancer drug development and that
NGS cfDNA analyses can i) generate
critically important quantitative
and qualitative information that can
supplement imaging data acquired
by CT and/or X-ray scan, ii) elucidate
the impact of tumour heterogeneity
on drug response and iii) identify
potential post-treatment changes
in allele frequency that may have a
prognostic value.
“This research aims to
analyse the efficacy of
the novel compound
Gabapentin, Amitriptyline,
and Lignocaine topical
ointment in providing any
significant improvement
for the management of
post-haemorrhoidectomy
pain, when compared with
conventional treatment.”
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