Endoscopic assessment and management of early esophageal adenocarcinoma

Esophageal carcinoma affects more than 450000people worldwide and the incidence is rapidly increasing.In the United States and Europe,esophageal adenocarcinoma has superseded esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in its incidence.Esophageal cancer has a high mortality rates secondary to the late presentation of most patients at advanced stages.Endoscopic screening is recommended for patients with multiple risk factors for cancer in Barrett’s esophagus.These risk factors include chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease,hiatal hernia,advanced age,male sex,white race,cigarette smoking,and obesity.The annual risk of esophageal cancer is approximately 0.25%for patients without dysplasia and 6%for patients with high-grade dysplasia.Twenty percent of all esophageal adenocarcinoma in the United States is early stage with disease confined to the mucosa or submucosa.The significant morbidity and mortality of esophagectomy make endoscopic treatment an attractive option.The American Gastroenterological Association recommends endoscopic eradication therapy for patients with high-grade dysplasia.Endoscopic modalities for treatment of early esophageal adenocarcinoma include endoscopic resection techniques and endoscopic ablative techniques such as radiofrequency ablation,photodynamic therapy and cryoablation.Endoscopic therapy should be precluded to patients with no evidence of lymphovascular invasion.Local tumor recurrence is low after endoscopic therapy and is predicted by poor differentiation of tumor,positive lymph node and submucosal invasion.Surgical resection should be offered to patients with deep submucosal invasion.

Efficacy and safety of peroral endoscopic myotomy after prior sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass surgery

BACKGROUND Per-oral endoscopic myotomy(POEM)is safe and effective for the treatment of achalasia.There is limited data on performance of POEM in patients with altered upper gastrointestinal anatomy,especially after bariatric surgery.Outcomes in patients with prior sleeve gastrectomy have not been reported.AIM To assess the efficacy and safety of POEM in patients with prior bariatric surgery.METHODS A prospective POEM database was reviewed from 3/2017-5/2020 to identify patients who underwent POEM after prior bariatric surgery.Efficacy was assessed by technical success(defined as the ability to successfully complete the procedure)and clinical success[decrease in Eckardt score(ES)to≤3 post procedure].Safety was evaluated by recording adverse events.RESULTS Six patients(50%male,mean age 48 years)with a history of prior bariatric surgery who underwent POEM were included.Three had prior sleeve gastrectomy(SG)and three prior Roux-en-Y gastric bypass(RYGB).Four patients had achalasia subtype II and 2 had type I.Most(4)patients had undergone previous achalasia therapy.Technical success was 100%.Clinical success was achieved in 4(67%)patients at mean follow-up of 21 mo.In one of the clinical failures,EndoFLIP evaluation demonstrated adequate treatment and candida esophagitis was noted as the likely cause of dysphagia.There were no major adverse events.CONCLUSION POEM is technically feasible after both RYGB and SG and offers an effective treatment for this rare group of patients where surgical options for achalasia are limited.