Current practice for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: a multicentre study in Lazio, Italy.

Abstract

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is largely used in clinical practice. Different international guidelines advised some actions to improve this endoscopic examination, including an adequate sampling of gastric mucosa for both Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) diagnosis and detection of precancerous lesions to evaluate gastric cancer risk [1]. Therefore, assessing current EGDs practice, including pre-, during, and post-procedure measures, is relevant to identify potential aspects to be implemented. With this aim, we designed this multicentre study on EGD practice in 8 endoscopic centres in Lazio, an Italian region with 5,709,263 inhabitants in 2022. Clinical, endoscopic, and histological data of consecutive patients referred for UGIE in the participating centres between March 1 and March 31, 2022, were anonymously reviewed. An adequate gastric mucosa sampling was considered to be accomplished when at least two antral and two gastric LETTERS TO THE EDITOR