IMPEL Register your centre

International prospective snapshot audit

Emergency care for large-bowel obstruction

IMPEL follows adults admitted with mechanical large-bowel obstruction to understand how emergency teams assess and manage it, and what happens to patients through six months.

Register your centre Get study documents
An illustration of the colon showing dilatation above a narrowed segment.
Mechanical large-bowel obstruction
90 days
Consecutive case inclusion at each centre
6 months
Follow-up from index admission
Routine care
De-identified observational data

International network

Centre enrolment

Public sign-up totals appear here when available from REDCap.

Public REDCap dashboard
IMPEL centre participation by country A world map. Country-level sign-up data is currently unavailable.

Country-level markers appear when REDCap publishes them.

Bring your centre into IMPEL

Acute-care hospitals that provide emergency general surgery can take part. Capture consecutive adults admitted with mechanical large-bowel obstruction, including operative and non-operative cases.

  1. Name a local lead

    Identify a site investigator and a team for case screening, data entry and follow-up.

  2. Register and confirm local approvals

    Use the REDCap centre form. Confirm local governance and data-sharing requirements and agree your 90-day window with the study team.

  3. Capture cases and follow-up

    Record de-identified presentation, imaging, management and outcomes from routine records, including 30-day outcomes and six-month stoma status.

IMPEL observes routine clinical decisions. The audit adds no study-directed treatment or procedures.

Eligibility and data handling

Include adults aged 18 or older admitted with mechanical large-bowel obstruction. The protocol sets out eligible causes and excludes functional obstruction and elective admissions for chronic or subacute narrowing.

Use de-identified data and relative time intervals in central REDCap. Store any linkage log securely at your own centre and confirm your local approvals before including cases.

Study documents

Share the invitation with your service, review the protocol and use the guide and blank case report forms to plan local participation.

Download all five PDFs

Centre onboarding

Centre invitation letterStudy overview and how to joinPDF ↗ Collaborator guideInformation only · local setup, screening and follow-upPDF ↗ Blank patient case report formsREDCap instrument export · planning copyPDF ↗ Data collection worksheetPlanning reference · topics and time pointsPDF ↗

Protocol and governance

Study protocolVersion 1.0 · 1 May 2026PDF ↗ Study registrationClinicalTrials.gov · NCT07458867↗ Ethics and data-use documentsContact the study team for site-specific requestsEmail ↗

The IMPEL team

IMPEL is coordinated by the Center for Emergency Surgery Outcomes Research (CESOR) with an international steering committee.

Study co-lead

Matteo Maria Cimino

IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan

Study co-lead

Gabriele Bellio

IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan

Principal investigator

Gary Alan Bass

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia · CESOR

Steering committee

  • Hayato Kurihara
  • Lewis J. Kaplan
  • Isidro Martínez-Casas
  • Matthew J. Lee
  • Alan Biloslavo
  • Manuela Mastronardi
  • Laura Kvasnicová
  • Jim Khan
  • Ian Paquette

Collaborator recognition

Centre investigators who meet the study’s contribution and data-quality requirements are eligible for recognition in collaborative publications.