Gastroparesis, once regarded as a rare disease, is difficult to diagnose and challenging to treat; there were many breakthrough advances in the 2010s, shifting the paradigm of the understanding of this complex entity and its management. Similar to diabetes, its increasing prevalence reflects increased accessibility to diagnostic modalities and suggests that gastroparesis was underacknowledged in the past. Major developments in the three main aspects of the disease include the discovery of smooth muscle cells, interstitial cells of Cajal, PDGFRα + cells syncytium, rather than interstitial cells of Cajal alone, as the main gastric pacemaker unit; the development of validated point-of-care diagnostic modalities such as a wireless motility capsule, the carbon 13-labeled breath test, and impedance planimetry; and the introduction of novel minimally invasive therapeutic options such as newer pharmacologic agents and gastric peroral endoscopic pyloromyotomy. All aspects of these advances will be discussed further in this review.

Esophageal cancer has a poor overall prognosis and is frequently diagnosed at a late stage. Conventional treatment for metastatic esophageal cancer involves chemotherapy and radiation. Local disease control plays a significant role in improving survival. Endoscopic spray cryotherapy is a novel modality that involves freezing and thawing to produce local ablation of malignant tissue via ischemic mechanisms. Spray cryotherapy has been shown to be effective, particularly for early T-stage, superficial esophageal adenocarcinomas. We present the case of a 72-year-old-male with locally recurrent stage IV esophageal adenocarcinoma and long-term survival of 7 years to date, with concurrent chemoradiation and serial cryoablation. He remains asymptomatic and continues to undergo chemotherapy and sequential cryoablation. The findings highlight the long-term safety and efficacy of cryotherapy in combination with chemoradiation, and suggest that cryoablation may have an additive role in the treatment of advanced stage esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Adenocarcinoma* ; Cryosurgery* ; Cryotherapy ; Drug Therapy ; Esophageal Neoplasms ; Freezing ; Prognosis

Background/Aims: There are conflicting opinions regarding the management of recurrent acute pancreatitis (RAP). While some physicians recommend endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in this setting, others consider it to be contraindicated in patients with RAP. The aim of this study was to assess the practice patterns and clinical features influencing the management of RAP in the US. Methods: An anonymous 35-question survey instrument was developed and refined through multiple iterations, and its use was approved by our Institutional Review Board. The survey was distributed via email to 408 gastroenterologists to assess the practice patterns in the management of RAP in multiple clinical scenarios. Results: The survey was completed by 65 participants representing 36 of the top academic/tertiary care centers across the country. Approximately 90.8% of the participants indicated that they might offer or recommend ERCP in the management of RAP. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that ductal dilatation and presence of symptoms were the most predictive variables (p<0.001) for offering ERCP. Conclusions A preponderance of the respondents would consider ERCP among patients with RAP presenting to tertiary care centers in the US. Ductal dilatation, presence of symptoms, and pancreas divisum significantly increased the likelihood of a recommendation for ERCP

Background/Aims: This study aims to compare polyp detection performance of “Deep-GI,” a newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) model, to a previously validated AI model computer-aided polyp detection (CADe) using various false positive (FP) thresholds and determining the best threshold for each model. Methods: Colonoscopy videos were collected prospectively and reviewed by three expert endoscopists (gold standard), trainees, CADe (CAD EYE; Fujifilm Corp.), and Deep-GI. Polyp detection sensitivity (PDS), polyp miss rates (PMR), and false-positive alarm rates (FPR) were compared among the three groups using different FP thresholds for the duration of bounding boxes appearing on the screen. Results: In total, 170 colonoscopy videos were used in this study. Deep-GI showed the highest PDS (99.4% vs. 85.4% vs. 66.7%, p<0.01) and the lowest PMR (0.6% vs. 14.6% vs. 33.3%, p<0.01) when compared to CADe and trainees, respectively. Compared to CADe, Deep-GI demonstrated lower FPR at FP thresholds of ≥0.5 (12.1 vs. 22.4) and ≥1 second (4.4 vs. 6.8) (both p<0.05). However, when the threshold was raised to ≥1.5 seconds, the FPR became comparable (2 vs. 2.4, p=0.3), while the PMR increased from 2% to 10%. Conclusions Compared to CADe, Deep-GI demonstrated a higher PDS with significantly lower FPR at ≥0.5- and ≥1-second thresholds. At the ≥1.5-second threshold, both systems showed comparable FPR with increased PMR.

Background/Aims: The Thai Association for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy published recommendations on safe endoscopy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to assess the practicality and applicability of the recommendations and the perceptions of endoscopy personnel on them. Methods: A validated questionnaire was sent to 1290 endoscopy personnel globally. Of these, the data of all 330 responders (25.6%) from 15 countries, related to the current recommendations on proper personal protective equipment (PPE), case selection, scope cleaning, and safety perception, were analyzed. Ordinal logistic regression was used to determine the relationships between the variables. Results: Despite an overwhelming agreement with the recommendations on PPE (94.5%) and case selection (95.5%), their practicality and applicability on PPE recommendations and case selection were significantly lower (p=0.001, p=0.047, p<0.001, and p=0.032, respectively). Factors that were associated with lower sense of safety in endoscopy units were younger age (p=0.004), less working experience (p=0.008), in-training status (p=0.04), and higher national prevalence of COVID-19 (p=0.003). High prevalent countries also had more difficulty implementing the guidelines (p<0.001) and they considered the PPE recommendations less practical and showed lower agreement with them (p<0.001 and p=0.008, respectively). A higher number of in-hospital COVID-19 patients was associated with less agreement with PPE recommendations (p=0.039). Conclusions Using appropriate PPE and case selection in endoscopic practice during a pandemic remains a challenge. Resource availability and local prevalence are critical factors influencing the adoption of the current guidelines.