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Endoscopic Experts Needed In Pediatrics

October 29, 2018 6:58 am

A recent study (A Schmidt et al. Gastroenterol 2018; 155: 674-86) shows how a new endoscopic technique, over-the-scope clips (OTSC), are more effective than standard endoscopic therapy for patients with recurrent bleeding of peptic ulcers.

Key finding: A multicenter prospective randomized unblinded study with 66 patients (33 in each arm) with found that hemostasis with OTSC had a failure rate (further bleeding) of 15.2% compared with 57.6% in those with standard therapy.

The authors note that standard endoscopic techniques are effective in more than 90% with rebleeding rates of 2-10%. In those with rebleeding, followup endoscopy has a much lower success rate.

My take:

This study highlights a problem in pediatric endoscopy –the lack of expertise in these rare cases. To learn even ‘standard’ endoscopic therapy, most pediatric GI fellows will need to collaborate with adult gastroenterologists in order to have exposure to a sufficient number of cases.
The development of alternatives like hemospray (Hemospray for GI Bleeding) which is technically-easy should be helpful for pediatric endoscopists with less endoscopic training.

Related article:

P Tran et al. JPGN 2018; 67: 458-63. This retrospective analysis of 11 pediatric cases (median age 14.7 yrs) reported technical success in all cases, though 2 patients with anastomotic ulcers requred additional medical intervention. The article has some pretty cool pictures.

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