ESGE suggests flexible endoscopic treatment over open surgical treatment as first-line therapy for patients with a symptomatic Zenker’s diverticulum of any size.

Weak recommendation, low quality of evidence, level of agreement 100 %.

ESGE recommends that emerging treatments for Zenker’s diverticulum, such as Zenker’s peroral endoscopic myotomy (Z-POEM) and tunneling, be considered as experimental; these treatments should be offered in a research setting only.

Strong recommendation, low quality of evidence, level of agreement 100 %.

ESGE recommends against the widespread clinical use of transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF) as an alternative to proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy or antireflux surgery in the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), because of the lack of data on the long-term outcomes, the inferiority of TIF to fundoplication, and its modest efficacy in only highly selected patients. TIF may have a role for patients with mild GERD who are not willing to take PPIs or undergo antireflux surgery.

Strong recommendation, moderate quality of evidence, level of agreement 92.8 %.

ESGE recommends against the use of the Medigus ultrasonic surgical endostapler (MUSE) in clinical practice because of insufficient data showing its effectiveness and safety in patients with GERD. MUSE should be used in clinical trials only.

Strong recommendation, low quality evidence, level of agreement 100 %.

ESGE recommends against the use of antireflux mucosectomy (ARMS) in routine clinical practice in the treatment of GERD because of the lack of data and its potential complications.

Strong recommendation, low quality evidence, level of agreement 100 %.

ESGE recommends endoscopic cecostomy only after conservative management with medical therapies or retrograde lavage has failed.

Strong recommendation, low quality evidence, level of agreement 93.3%.

ESGE recommends fixing the cecum to the abdominal wall at three points (using T-anchors, a double-needle suturing device, or laparoscopic fixation) to prevent leaks and infectious adverse events, whatever percutaneous endoscopic cecostomy method is used.

Strong recommendation, very low quality evidence, level of agreement 86.7%.

ESGE recommends considering endoscopic decompression of the colon in patients with Ogilvie’s syndrome that is not improving with conservative treatment.

Strong recommendation, low quality evidence, level of agreement 93.8%.

ESGE recommends prompt endoscopic decompression if the cecal diameter is > 12 cm and if the Ogilvie’s syndrome exists for a duration of longer than 4–6 days.

Strong recommendation, low quality evidence, level of agreement 87.5%.

Helicobacter pylori continues to be a major health problem worldwide, causing considerable morbidity and mortality due to peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer.

The burden of disease falls disproportionately on less well-resourced populations. As with most infectious diseases, the greatest impact on reducing this burden comes from improvements in socioeconomic status, which interrupt transmission. This has been observed in many regions of the world, but the prevalence of infection remains high in many regions in which improvements in living standards are slow to occur.

Meanwhile, the optimal clinical management and treatment pathways remain unsettled and are evolving with changing antimicrobial resistance patterns. Despite decades of research and clinical practice, major challenges remain. The quest for the most effective, safe, and simple therapy is still a major issue for clinicians. An effective vaccine also still appears to be elusive.

Clinical guidelines not infrequently proffer discordant advice. It is very difficult for guidelines to achieve relevance across a variety of populations with varying spectrums of disease, antimicrobial resistance rates, and vastly different resources. As local factors are central to determining the impact and management strategies for H. pylori infection, it is important for pathways to be based on the best available local knowledge, rather than solely extrapolated from guidelines formulated in other regions, which may be less applicable. To this end, this revision of the WGO H. pylori guideline uses a “cascades” approach that seeks to summarize the principles of management and offer advice for pragmatic, relevant, and achievable diagnostic and treatment pathways based on established key treatment principles and using local knowledge and available resources to guide regional practice.

Keywords: H. pylori, stomach, peptic ulcer, gastric cancer, dyspepsia, antibiotics

Abdominal ultrasonography and intestinal ultrasonography are widely used as first diagnostic tools for investigating patients with abdominal symptoms, mainly for excluding organic diseases. However, gastrointestinal ultrasound (GIUS), as a real-time diagnostic imaging method, can also provide information on motility, flow, perfusion, peristalsis, and organ filling and emptying, with high temporal and spatial resolution. Thanks to its noninvasiveness and high repeatability, GIUS can investigate functional gastrointestinal processes and functional gastrointestinal diseases (FGID) by studying their behavior over time and their response to therapy and providing insight into their pathophysiologic mechanisms. The European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) has established a Task Force Group consisting of GIUS experts, which developed clinical recommendations and guidelines on the role of GIUS in several acute and chronic gastrointestinal diseases. This review is dedicated to the role of GIUS in assisting the diagnosis of FGID and particularly in investigating patients with symptoms of functional disorders, such as dysphagia, reflux disorders, dyspepsia, abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habits. The available scientific evidence of GIUS in detecting, assessing, and investigating FGID are reported here, while highlighting sonographic findings and its usefulness in a clinical setting, defining the actual and potential role of GIUS in the management of patients, and providing information regarding future applications and research.

Keywords: esophagus - rectum - stomach - ultrasound - small bowel

Background

Gastroparesis is a condition characterized by epigastric symptoms and delayed gastric emptying (GE) rate in the absence of any mechanical obstruction. The condition is challenging in clinical practice by the lack of guidance concerning diagnosis and management of gastroparesis.

Methods

A Delphi consensus was undertaken by 40 experts from 19 European countries who conducted a literature summary and voting process on 89 statements. Quality of evidence was evaluated using grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation criteria. Consensus (defined as >=80% agreement) was reached for 25 statements.

Results

The European consensus defined gastroparesis as the presence of symptoms associated with delayed GE in the absence of mechanical obstruction. Nausea and vomiting were identified as cardinal symptoms, with often coexisting postprandial distress syndrome symptoms of dyspepsia. The true epidemiology of gastroparesis is not known in detail, but diabetes, gastric surgery, certain neurological and connective tissue diseases, and the use of certain drugs recognized as risk factors. While the panel agreed that severely impaired gastric motor function is present in these patients, there was no consensus on underlying pathophysiology. The panel agreed that an upper endoscopy and a GE test are required for diagnosis. Only dietary therapy, dopamine-2 antagonists and 5-HT4 receptor agonists were considered appropriate therapies, in addition to nutritional support in case of severe weight loss. No consensus was reached on the use of proton pump inhibitors, other classes of antiemetics or prokinetics, neuromodulators, complimentary, psychological, or more invasive therapies. Finally, there was consensus that gastroparesis adversely impacts on quality of life and healthcare costs and that the long-term prognosis of gastroparesis depends on the cause.

Conclusions and Inferences

A multinational group of European experts summarized the current state of consensus on definition, symptom characteristics, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of gastroparesis.

Keywords: consensus, endoscopy, gastric emptying, gastroparesis, guideline, prokinetic