BACKGROUND: China has made significant progress in medical accessibility and quality over the past decades, and quality improvements in gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy have been consistent. The study aimed to describe the status quo of gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy in the Chinese mainland based on the data from the National Clinical Improvement System (NCIS) and the Hospital Quality Monitoring System (HQMS). METHODS: Data were extracted from the NCIS and the HQMS. Data analysis included general information from the Department of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy centers, management of inpatients and outpatients, and annual volume and quality indicators of digestive endoscopy. Acute pancreatitis, gastrointestinal bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease, and cirrhosis were identified as priority diseases and were subjected to detailed analysis. RESULTS: Data from 4620 and 7074 hospitals were extracted from the NCIS and HQMS, respectively. In 2023, 9.6 gastroenterologists, 6.7 endoscopists, and 37.3 gastroenterology beds per hospital nationwide were observed, achieving 19,252.4 outpatient visits, 1615.2 hospitalizations (97.0 for acute pancreatitis, 146.1 for gastrointestinal bleeding, 40.2 for inflammatory bowel disease, and 111.4 for cirrhosis), and 9432.7 digestive endoscopic procedures per hospital. Overall, the quality of practice improved significantly. The proportion of early cancer among gastrointestinal cancers increased from 11.1% in 2015 to 23.4% in 2023, and the adenoma detection rate during colonoscopy increased from 19.3% in 2019 to 26.9% in 2023. Regarding priority diseases, hospitalizations increased, and 31-day unplanned readmission rates decreased between 2019 and 2023. The median hospitalization costs and median proportion of medication costs decreased for acute pancreatitis, gastrointestinal bleeding, and cirrhosis. However, it increased for inflammatory bowel disease. CONCLUSION This report evaluates the status quo and development of gastroenterology and digestive endoscopy in the Chinese mainland, providing guidance for future quality improvements.
Humans ; China ; Gastroenterology/statistics & numerical data* ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal/statistics & numerical data* ; Endoscopy, Digestive System/statistics & numerical data*

Humans ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Constriction, Pathologic/diagnosis* ; Bile Duct Neoplasms/diagnosis* ; Endoscopy, Digestive System

Consensus ; Perioperative Care ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Glycogen Storage Disease/surgery* ; Humans ; Child, Preschool ; Child

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, the volume and availability of digestive endoscopy have undergone dramatic development in recent years, with increasing attention on quality assurance. We investigated the utilization and quality of digestive endoscopy in China from 2015 to 2019 and developed a quantitative quality evaluation tool for medical institutions. METHODS: We invited all tertiary/secondary hospitals in Chinese mainland to participate in the survey annually. The questionnaires included the personnel, annual volume, and quality indicators of endoscopy. An endoscopy quality index (EQI) was developed based on recorded quality indicators using principal component analysis to determine the relative weight. RESULTS: From 2015 to 2019, 806, 1412, 2644, 2468, and 2541 hospitals were respectively enrolled in this study. The average annual volume of endoscopy increased from 12,445 to 16,206 (1.30-fold) and from 2938 to 4255 (1.45-fold) in tertiary and secondary hospitals, respectively. The most obvious growth was observed in diagnostic colonoscopy (1.44-fold for all hospitals after standardization). The proportion of early cancer among all esophageal and gastric cancers during diagnostic esophagogastroduodenoscopy increased from 12.3% (55,210/448,861) to 17.7% (85,429/482,647) and from 11.4% (69,411/608,866) to 16.9% (107,192/634,235), respectively. The adenoma detection rate of diagnostic colonoscopy increased from 14.9% (2,118,123/14,215,592) to 19.3% (3,943,203/20,431,104). The EQI model included 12 quality indicators, incorporating 64.9% (7.792/12) of the total variance into one comprehensive index. According to the EQI measurements, the quality of endoscopy was higher in tertiary hospitals and hospitals in developed areas with higher volume or more endoscopists than that in other hospitals. CONCLUSIONS Digestive endoscopy in China has developed considerably in recent years in terms of both volume and quality. The EQI is a promising tool to quantify the quality of endoscopy at different hospitals.
Humans ; Colonoscopy/methods* ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Endoscopy, Digestive System/methods* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Adenoma ; China

After nearly 40 years of development, digestive endoscopy in children has been widely applied, and it has helped to expand the spectrum of pediatric digestive system diseases and greatly improve the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric digestive system diseases. Pediatric digestive endoscopy has become a subject. However, there are some problems such as the unbalanced development of pediatric digestive endoscopy across China, the lack of homogeneity in diagnosis and treatment system, the tendency of adult-oriented diagnosis and treatment techniques, and the localization of training quality, which affect the standardized and healthy development of pediatric digestive endoscopy. The diagnosis and treatment with digestive endoscopy in children should adhere to both pediatric characteristics and technological innovation to propose the concept of comfort, emphasize the importance of standardization (including the space and process for endoscopic diagnosis and treatment, perioperative evaluation, training mode, and access qualification), standardize the minimally invasive techniques, and develop artificial intelligence. It is of great importance to formulate related consensus statements and guidelines on the basis of medical safety and the features of the growth and development of children, so as to achieve the high-quality development of pediatric digestive endoscopy, effectively improve the diagnosis and treatment levels of pediatric digestive endoscopy, and bring benefits to more pediatric patients.
Artificial Intelligence ; Child ; China ; Consensus ; Digestive System Diseases/diagnosis* ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Humans

Choriocarcinoma is an aggressively growing and widely metastasizing tumor that originates from trophoblastic cells. A primary gastric choriocarcinoma (PGC), however, is very rare. A 76-year-old female patient visited the emergency department of Wonkwang University Hospital with abdominal discomfort and melena. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed a huge ulceroinfiltrative mass lesion with blood clots on the boundary between the greater curvature side and the posterior wall side of the stomach lower body. CT showed a 3-cm exophytic mass lesion with heterogeneous enhancement, an ulcer lesion at the posterior wall side of the stomach lower body, and multiple enlarged lymph nodes at the splenic artery and left gastric artery nodal stations. She underwent a radical subtotal gastrectomy with a D2 lymph node dissection. The final diagnosis was PGC coexisting with adenocarcinoma based on the pathology results. This paper reports a rare case of primary gastric choriocarcinoma coexisting with adenocarcinoma and discusses the characteristics of this neoplasm with reference to the literature.
Adenocarcinoma ; Aged ; Arteries ; Choriocarcinoma ; Chorionic Gonadotropin ; Diagnosis ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Female ; Gastrectomy ; Humans ; Lymph Node Excision ; Lymph Nodes ; Melena ; Pathology ; Pregnancy ; Splenic Artery ; Stomach ; Trophoblasts ; Ulcer

This is a case report of simultaneous primary leiomyosarcomas in the spine and liver. A 64-year-old woman presented to the Seoul Paik Hospital with epigastric discomfort and constipation that she had experienced for two months. A physical examination revealed severe tenderness around the thoraco-lumbar junction. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy showed an ulceroinfiltrative lesion on the gastric angle. An abdominopelvic CT scan revealed two low attenuated lesions in the S4 and S8 regions of the liver, as well as a soft tissue mass at the T10 vertebra. Percutaneous ultrasonography-guided needle biopsy of the hepatic nodules revealed a leiomyosarcoma. The tumor at the T10 vertebra was removed to avoid spinal cord compression. The histology of this tumor was compatible with that of leiomyosarcoma. The potential primary sites for leiomyosarcoma, including the lung, thyroid, breast, kidney, genitourinary organs, and gastrointestinal tract, were subsequently investigated. No detectable abnormal findings that would suggest the origin of the tumor were found. Synchronous primary leiomyosarcomas in the spine and liver are quite rare and have a poor prognosis.
Biopsy, Needle ; Bone and Bones ; Breast ; Constipation ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Kidney ; Leiomyosarcoma ; Liver ; Lung ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms, Multiple Primary ; Physical Examination ; Prognosis ; Seoul ; Spinal Cord Compression ; Spine ; Thyroid Gland ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Coin batteries are often used in daily life devices and can be easily available. Children can swallow coin batteries, resulting in the need to go to hospital, but this is rare in adults. Adults generally eliminate the swallowed coin battery from the digestive system, unless they have congenital structural abnormalities of the digestive system or complications, such as postoperative stenosis. In this case, a 31-year-old man swallowed three coin batteries, approximately 0.4 cm in diameter emergent endoscopy was unable to find any batteries embedded in the ingested food. An attempt was made to rinse out the batteries by bowel preparation. During the hospital stay, the patient complained of acute abdominal pain and fever. In the abdominal CT scan, impaction of the coin battery into the appendix was confirmed. The patient underwent a laparoscopic appendectomy to prevent appendiceal perforation.
Abdominal Pain ; Adult ; Appendectomy ; Appendix ; Child ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Digestive System ; Endoscopy ; Fever ; Humans ; Length of Stay ; Numismatics ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

The prevalence of small bowel cancer is relatively low. The abdominal pain that patients with small bowel cancer present as a symptom is non-specific and often interpreted as a normal finding on radiographic studies. To prevent delayed diagnosis of small bowel cancer, practitioners must maintain a certain level of suspicion. We report a case of delayed diagnosis of jejunal cancer as it was misdiagnosed as gastroparesis. A 69-year-old woman complained of recurrent nausea and vomiting. At the beginning of her hospitalization, we could not diagnose mechanical obstruction through esophagogastroduodenoscopy and abdominal computed tomography. A gastric emptying study revealed delayed gastric emptying. Although the patients received treatments, including administration of prokinetics and botulinum toxin injection, for gastroparesis, her symptoms aggravated. Subsequently, plain radiography of the abdomen revealed a double-bubble sign. Abdominal computed tomography was performed under the suspicion of small bowel obstruction; however, the diagnosis was not clear. Consequently, exploratory laparoscopy was performed. She underwent surgical management, including small bowel segmental resection and duodenojejunostomy, due to the jejunal mass with involvement of the stomach, pancreatic head, and mesentery of the transverse colon. The postoperative pathological results revealed a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the jejunum.
Abdomen ; Abdominal Pain ; Adenocarcinoma ; Aged ; Botulinum Toxins ; Colon, Transverse ; Delayed Diagnosis ; Diagnosis ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Female ; Gastric Emptying ; Gastroparesis ; Head ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Jejunal Neoplasms ; Jejunum ; Laparoscopy ; Mesentery ; Nausea ; Prevalence ; Radiography ; Stomach ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: Quality indicators of the National Endoscopy Quality Improvement Program (NEQIP) and outcome measures of endoscopy in the National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP) in Korea are not clear. We evaluated the quality indicators of the revised NEQIP and outcome measures of endoscopy at different types of healthcare facilities participating in the NCSP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted between March and August 2018 in primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare facilities that perform endoscopy as a part of the NCSP. Representative endoscopists completed a questionnaire for quality indicators of the NEQIP and provided data on outcome measures for endoscopy. RESULTS: Quality indicators of the NEQIP were mostly acceptable. However, the quality indicators for annual volume of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy, training for endoscopy quality improvement by endoscopy nursing staff, colonoscopy reports, documentation of pathologic lesions, quality of endoscopy reprocessing areas, and completion of endoscopy reprocessing education programs were suboptimal. For outcome measures of EGD, the number of photo-documentations and total procedure time were higher at tertiary healthcare facilities than at other facilities (p<0.001 and p=0.023, respectively). For the outcome measures of colonoscopy, colonoscopy completion rate and waiting times for colonoscopy were significantly higher at tertiary healthcare facilities than at other facilities (both p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Outcome measures of endoscopy should be included as quality indicators of NCSP. However, universal outcome measures for all types of healthcare facilities should be established because performance levels of some outcome measures differ among individual healthcare facility types.
Colonoscopy ; Delivery of Health Care ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Education ; Endoscopy ; Endoscopy, Digestive System ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Korea ; Mass Screening ; Nursing Staff ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Quality Improvement ; Tertiary Healthcare