Intraductal biliary lesions can involve the main hepatic confluence. Assessment of the extension of pedunculated biliary lesions during per-oral cholangioscopy (POCS) can optimize and personalize the surgical strategy. Four consecutive cases of pedunculated biliary lesions were analysed. Cholangioscopy was performed with a disposable single-operator cholangioscope. POSC was successfully performed in four patients (three female, mean age 50 years), showing involvement of the main biliary confluence in three of four pedunculated biliary lesions; direct biopsy sampling was diagnostic in two of three cases (in one patient, biopsy were not performed due to the smooth appearance of the intrabiliary lesion). No adverse events occurred after POCS. Surgery required excision of the main hepatic confluence in two of three cases (one patient was not resectable). POCS can diagnose intrabiliary extension of protruding biliary lesions, providing important information to plan the surgical intervention.
Background: Despite the well-established diagnostic and therapeutic applications of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in adults, data about its use in children are limited. In this study, we tried to assess the feasibility, safety, and clinical impact of EUS in pediatric patients.
Methods: Data of pediatric patients (<18 years) referred for EUS over a 3-year period to the endoscopy units of four Egyptian tertiary centers were retrospectively analyzed. Significant impact was defined as a new diagnosis or treatment attributed to the EUS procedure.
Results: Twenty-four diagnostic and five therapeutic EUS procedures were conducted in 29 children with a median age of 9 years. Indications for EUS included assessment of solid pancreatic mass (n = 3), pancreatic cyst (n = 2), suspected chronic pancreatitis (n = 9), pancreatic pseudocyst (PPC) (n = 5), recurrent hypoglycemia (n = 1), bile duct mass (n = 1), subepithelial lesion (esophageal, duodenal or anorectal) (n = 4), mediastinal mass (n = 1), pelvic mass (n = 3), and mass at splenic hilum (n = 1). Therapeutically, five patients underwent cystogastrostomy for symptomatic PPC with 100% technical and clinical success. EUS was able to diagnose 21 out of the other 24 patients. EUS-guided tissue acquisition was performed in 11 patients with definitive histopathological diagnosis in 10 patients (91%). There was no procedure-related major complication, while minor complications occurred in two cases (transient pain in one case, temporary fever, and vomiting in two cases).
Conclusion: Standard linear EUS equipment and accessories can be used safely and effectively in selected pediatric patients for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
Self-expandable metallic stents (SEMS) have been widely used in adults to relieve obstruction secondary to colorectal tumours. However, there is a paucity of literature about their use in children, with only a few case reports describing stent insertion in children with benign colonic conditions. There is one case report on a malignant colonic condition in a child by Hussain et al. in the literature. However, due to the rarity of the condition, there are currently no guidelines from learned societies on colorectal SEMS placement in paediatric patients. We share our experience of using a fully covered SEMS to relieve malignant colonic obstruction in a 6 year-old-child, who was on treatment for T cell lymphoma. This was done as a bridge to surgery, thereby allowing planned surgery, and avoiding colostomy in this child, who went on to have colonic resection with primary anastomosis.
Morbidly obese and post-bariatric surgery patients are at increased risk for biliary stones formation. The complications related to biliary stones may impose complexity on their management. This study aimed to review the management of biliary conditions in obese and bariatric patients. In this study, a narrative review was performed of the medical, surgical, and endoscopic procedures for the management of biliary stones and their related complications. Knowing the main prophylactic and therapeutic interventions options is essential for clinicians to properly manage the biliary stones in patients candidates or submitted to bariatric surgery.
Plain language summary: Management of biliary stones in bariatric surgery The complications related to biliary stones may impose complexity on their management. Knowing the main prophylactic and therapeutic intervention options is essential for clinicians to properly manage the biliary stones in patient candidates or submitted to bariatric surgery. This study reviewed the main tools clinicians can handle to properly manage candidates for bariatric surgery or patients submitted to bariatric surgery.
Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the frequency and risk factors of clinical postoperative recurrence in Tunisian patients with Crohn's disease (CD).
Methods: Clinical data of 86 patients with CD who underwent ileocolonic resection at University Hospital of Sahloul in Tunisia were retrospectively reviewed. Continuous data are expressed as median (interquartile range), and categorical data as frequencies and percentages. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to identify the risk factors of postoperative clinical recurrence.
Results: A total of 86 patients with CD were included in this study. During follow-up, 21 patients (24.4%) had clinical recurrence. The cumulative clinical recurrence rate was 9.3% at 1 year and 20.9% at 5 years. In univariate analysis, predictive factors of postoperative clinical recurrence were active preoperative smoking (p = 0.008), ileal location of the disease (p = 0.01), active CD [Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI) > 150] (p = 0.04), duration of disease before first surgery <9.5 months (p = 0.027), and limited resection margins (<2 cm) from macroscopically diseased bowel (p = 0.005). In multivariate analysis, only smoking (p = 0.012), duration of disease before first surgery <9.5 months (p = 0.048), and limited resection margins (<2 cm) from macroscopically diseased bowel (p = 0.046) were confirmed to be independent factors of clinical relapse.
Conclusion: Smoking, duration of disease before first surgery <9.5 months, and limited resection margins (<2 cm) from macroscopically diseased bowel were independent risk factors for clinical recurrence. Based on these factors, patients could be stratified in order to guide postoperative therapeutic options.
Objective: Percutaneous cecostomy is a minimally invasive procedure that provides access to the colon for therapeutic interventions. This review aimed to update and summarize the existing information on the use and application of percutaneous endoscopic cecostomy in the field of therapeutic gastroenterology.
Data sources: A systematic review of the literature was performed without any restrictions on the year of publication from the date of inception in 1986 to January 2021.
Methods: The review was performed using the medical subject heading keywords in the following search engines: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Google Scholar.
Results: A total of 29 articles were subjected to final data extraction. The review included a total of 174 patients who underwent percutaneous cecostomy. Most of the included studies were conducted in the United States (n = 14). The most common comorbidity was cancer (n = 10) and the major indication for performing percutaneous cecostomy was colonic pseudo-obstruction or Ogilvie's syndrome (n = 15). The main technique for performing percutaneous cecostomy was endoscopy (17 studies), followed by fluoroscopy- (five studies), computed-tomography- (three studies), laparoscopy- (two studies), and ultrasound- (one study) guided procedures. The procedure was technically successful in 153 (88%) cases. The total cumulative rates of major and minor complications were 47.5%. These complications included tube malfunction, local wound site infections, and bleeding and rare complications of peritonitis and death.
Conclusion: Percutaneous cecostomy is a safe and effective option for managing acute colonic pseudo-obstruction. It leads to durable symptom relief with low to minimal risk.
Background: Clinically significant serrated polyp detection rate (CSSDR) and proximal serrated polyp detection rate (PSDR) have been suggested as the potential quality benchmarks for colonoscopy (CSSDR = 7% and PSDR = 11%) in comparison to the established benchmark adenoma detection rate (ADR). Another emerging milestone is the detection rate of lateral spreading lesions (LSLs).
Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate CSSDR, PSDR, ADR, and LSL detection rates among gastrointestinal (GI) fellows performing a colonoscopy. A secondary aim was to evaluate patient factors associated with the detection rates of these lesions.
Design and methods: A retrospective review of 799 colonoscopy reports was performed. GI fellow details, demographic data, and pathology found on colonoscopy were collected. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with CSSDR, PSDR, ADR, and LSL detection rates. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: For our patient population, the median age was 58 years; 396 (49.8%) were male and 386 (48.6%) were African American. The 15 GI fellows ranged from first (F1), second (F2), or third (F3) year of training. We found an overall CSSDR of 4.4%, PSDR of 10.5%, ADR of 42.1%, and LSL detection rate of 3.2%. Female gender was associated with CSSDR, while only age was associated with PSDR. GI fellow level of training was associated with LSL detection rate, with the odds of detecting them expected to be four times higher in F2/F3s than F1s.
Conclusion: Although GI fellows demonstrated an above-recommended ADR and nearly reached target PSDR, they failed to achieve target CSSDR. Future studies investigating a benchmark for LSL detection rate are needed to quantify if GI fellows are detecting these lesions at adequate rates.
Background: This study aimed to analyze the landscape of publications on bariatric metabolic surgery through machine learning and help experts and scholars from various disciplines better understand bariatric metabolic surgery's hot topics and trends.
Methods: In January 2021, publications indexed in PubMed under the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term 'Bariatric Surgery' from 1946 to 2020 were downloaded. Python was used to extract publication dates, abstracts, and research topics from the metadata of publications for bibliometric evaluation. Descriptive statistical analysis, social network analysis (SNA), and topic modeling with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) were used to reveal bariatric metabolic surgery publication growth trends, landscape, and research topics.
Results: A total of 21,798 records of bariatric metabolic surgery-related literature data were collected from PubMed. The number of publications indexed to bariatric metabolic surgery had expanded rapidly. Obesity Surgery and Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases are currently the most published journals in bariatric metabolic surgery. The bariatric metabolic surgery research mainly included five topics: bariatric surgery intervention, clinical case management, basic research, body contour, and surgical risk study.
Conclusion: Despite a rapid increase in bariatric metabolic surgery-related publications, few studies were still on quality of life, psychological status, and long-term follow-up. In addition, basic research has gradually increased, but the mechanism of bariatric metabolic surgery remains to be further studied. It is predicted that the above research fields may become potential hot topics in the future.

