Gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy (G-POEM) for refractory gastroparesis.

Gastroparesis is a chronic functional disorder characterized by severe symptoms and objective documentation of delayed gastric emptying, in the absence of any mechanical obstruction. The pathogenesis of gastroparesis comprises abnormalities of gastric motility (corpus and fundus dysmotility and antral hypomotility), pyloric resistance to gastric outflow (pyloric lower compliance or hypertone), and lack of antroduodenal motor coordination. Several conditions have been correlated to gastroparesis: diabetes, post-surgical sequelae, medications, neurological/muscular disorders and collagen vascular diseases. Diabetes is the most frequent condition associated with gastroparesis, which has been reported in up to 50% of patients suffering from long-lasting disease. The therapy of gastroparesis is primarily medical, with prokinetic or antiemetic drugs, but response may be limited, and side effects can arise; if medical therapy fails, pyloromyotomy remains the main option, either surgical or endoscopic. Gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy (G-POEM) may be considered nowadays an effective potential therapeutic intervention in alternative to surgery, relatively easy to perform in experienced hands, with a technical success of 100%, a favorable safety profile, and positive outcomes in the short-term as documented in three meta-analyses. However, to date, the definition of clinical success in gastroparesis is still not standardized, the correlation between symptom improvement and the objective documentation of an improvement in gastric emptying remains in some cases uncertain, reliable data to help in predicting which categories of gastroparesis and which symptoms could benefit most from the intervention, and long-term outcomes are still lacking.

Risk factors and clinical characteristics of early-onset colorectal cancer vs. late-onset colorectal cancer: a case-case study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Early-onset colorectal cancer (eoCRC), defined as colorectal cancer (CRC) before the age of 50 is increasing in incidence. We evaluated exogenous and endogenous risk factors, and clinical features of eoCRC, compared to late-onset CRC (loCRC). METHODS: In this retrospective case-case study, patients were prospectively enrolled from 2015 to 2018. We collected clinical features (age, sex, time from symptom onset to diagnosis, symptoms, family history, smoking and alcohol habits, diabetes, BMI, and genetic analysis) and tumor characteristics. Independent risk factors for eoCRC and odds ratios (ORs) were identified. RESULTS: Fifty-four eoCRCs and 494 loCRCs were enrolled. Patients with eoCRC experienced longer delay time from symptom onset to diagnosis: 40.7% were diagnosed within 6 months from symptoms onset, compared to 85.6% of patients with loCRC (P < 0.0001). They differed for sex, presence of symptoms, family history, smoking habit, alcohol intake, and BMI. Rectal localization was more closely associated with eoCRC (64.8%) than loCRC (34.5%, P < 0.0001). Family history of CRC was associated with eoCRC (OR = 8.8). When family history occurred with hereditary cancer syndromes, the OR for eoCRC increased to 21. CONCLUSION: In young adults with alarming symptoms, CRC must be suspected to avoid delay time from symptom onset to diagnosis and genetic risk assessment has to be evaluated. Smoking habits, alcohol intake, and BMI are not associated with eoCRC.

MSH6 gene pathogenic variant identified in familial pancreatic cancer in the absence of colon cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Lynch syndrome is characterized by pathogenetic variants in the mismatch repair genes and autosomal dominant inheritance with incomplete penetrance. Lynch syndrome is characterized by colorectal and, with lesser and variable extent, extracolonic cancers. We describe a family with MSH6-dependent Lynch syndrome and familial pancreatic cancer and other tumours (gastric and endometrial), in the absence of colorectal neoplasia. METHODS: Patients were analysed by sequencing, Next Generation or Sanger, to identify germinal pathogenic variants in hereditary cancer genes. RESULTS: We identified the MSH6 gene pathogenic variant c.2194C>T, p.(Arg732Ter) in a family with hereditary pancreatic cancer without diagnosed cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma. Seven family members were affected by the MSH6 pathogenic variant. Three had pancreatic adenocarcinoma at 65, 57 and 44 years; one had endometrial cancer at 36 years. None of the remaining three subjects (75, 45 and 17 years old) had developed any cancer yet. CONCLUSIONS: Lynch syndrome should be suspected in families with familial pancreatic cancer, even in the absence of colon cancers. Specifically, our observation supports the association between the MSH6 c.2194C>T pathogenic variant and extracolonic tumours and it suggests that MSH6 pathogenic variants are associated with familial pancreatic cancer more frequently than assumed.

Prophylaxis of post-ERCP pancreatitis: European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Guideline - updated June 2014.

This Guideline is an official statement of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE). It addresses the prophylaxis of post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (post-ERCP) pancreatitis. Main recommendations 1 ESGE recommends routine rectal administration of 100 mg of diclofenac or indomethacin immediately before or after ERCP in all patients without contraindication. In addition to this, in the case of high risk for post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP), the placement of a 5-Fr prophylactic pancreatic stent should be strongly considered. Sublingually administered glyceryl trinitrate or 250 µg somatostatin given in bolus injection might be considered as an option in high risk cases if nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are contraindicated and if prophylactic pancreatic stenting is not possible or successful. 2 ESGE recommends keeping the number of cannulation attempts as low as possible. 3 ESGE suggests restricting the use of a pancreatic guidewire as a backup technique for biliary cannulation to cases with repeated inadvertent cannulation of the pancreatic duct; if this method is used, deep biliary cannulation should be attempted using a guidewire rather than the contrast-assisted method and a prophylactic pancreatic stent should be placed. 4 ESGE suggests that needle-knife fistulotomy should be the preferred precut technique in patients with a bile duct dilated down to the papilla. Conventional precut and transpancreatic sphincterotomy present similar success and complication rates; if conventional precut is selected and pancreatic cannulation is easily obtained, ESGE suggests attempting to place a small-diameter (3-Fr or 5-Fr) pancreatic stent to guide the cut and leaving the pancreatic stent in place at the end of ERCP for a minimum of 12 - 24 hours. 4 ESGE does not recommend endoscopic papillary balloon dilation as an alternative to sphincterotomy in routine ERCP, but it may be advantageous in selected patients; if this technique is used, the duration of dilation should be longer than 1 minute.

Celiac plexus block for pancreatic cancer pain in adults.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer causes severe pain in 50 to 70% of patients and is often difficult to treat. Celiac plexus block (CPB) is thought to be a safe and effective technique for reducing the severity of pain. OBJECTIVES: To determine the efficacy and safety of celiac plexus neurolysis in reducing pancreatic cancer pain, and to identify adverse effects and differences in efficacy between the different techniques. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched Cochrane CENTRAL, MEDLINE, GATEWAY and EMBASE from 1990 to December 2010. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of CPB by the percutaneous approach or endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided neurolysis in adults with pancreatic cancer at any stage, with a minimum of four weeks follow-up. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We recorded details of study design, participants, disease, setting, outcome assessors, pain intensity (visual analogue scale (VAS)) and methods of calculation. MAIN RESULTS: The search identified 102 potentially eligible studies. Judged from the information in the title and abstract six of these concerning the percutaneous block, involving 358 participants, fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. All were RCTs in which the participants were followed for at least four weeks. We excluded studies published only as abstracts. We identified one RCT comparing EUS-guided or computed tomography (CT) -guided CPB but its aim was to assess efficacy in controlling chronic abdominal pain associated with chronic pancreatitis rather than pancreatic cancer, so it was excluded.For pain (VAS) at four weeks the mean difference was -0.42 in favour of CPB (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.70 to - 0.13, P = 0.004, fixed-effect model). At eight weeks the mean difference was -0.44 (95% CI -0.89 to - 0.01, random-effects model). At eight weeks there was significant heterogeneity (I(2) = 89%).Opioid consumption was significantly lower in the CPB group than the control group (P < 0.00001).  AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Although statistical evidence is minimal for the superiority of pain relief over analgesic therapy, the fact that CPB causes fewer adverse effects than opioids is important for patients. Further studies and RCTs are recommended to demonstrate the potential efficacy of a less invasive technique under EUS guidance.

Intraductal optical coherence tomography for investigating main pancreatic duct strictures.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) permits high-resolution imaging of tissue microstructures using a probe that can be inserted into the main pancreatic duct (MPD) through a standard endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) catheter. This prospective study was designed to assess the diagnostic capacity of OCT to differentiate between nonneoplastic and neoplastic lesions in patients with MPD segmental strictures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twelve consecutive patients with documented MPD segmental stricture were investigated by endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), with fine-needle aspiration cytology if necessary, and ERCP, followed by brush cytology and OCT scanning. RESULTS: OCT recognized a differentiated three-layer architecture in all cases with normal MPD or chronic pancreatitis, while in all the neoplastic lesions the layer architecture appeared totally subverted, with heterogeneous backscattering of the signal. The accuracy of OCT for detection of neoplastic tissue was 100% compared with 66.7% for brush cytology. In one case, neither OCT scanning nor brush cytology was possible because of the severity of the stricture. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study showed that OCT is feasible during ERCP, in cases of MPD segmental stricture, and was superior to brush cytology in distinguishing nonneoplastic from neoplastic lesions.