Promising results for patients with endoscopic treatments

Simpler, easier method for performing biopsy can improve patient care
A simpler biopsy procedure than the one traditionally used can give equally good results while reducing stress for patients and workers, and allowing for faster diagnosis, according to a study.
During various procedures performed by gastrointestinal endoscopists, small tissue samples are taken from the patient for examination, which is known as biopsy. The traditional endoscopic forceps biopsy method can be labour intensive as well as stressful for the workplace environment.
With this method, each specimen is removed and placed in fixative vial for identification. This is labour intensive, adding to the length of the procedure and the time under sedation. Biopsy samples from each site are filtered to remove fixative, inspected to record specimen number and size, and transferred to a container to undergo several more processing steps before being mounted on slides to be examined for abnormalities or disease.
According to the study authors, diagnosis is delayed by this complex and costly protocol. In addition, staff may be affected by ergonomic stress and workplace risk from exposure to sharps, toxic fixative, infectious material, and soil.
The researchers aimed to test a faster way of collecting, handling and processing the samples to slides through a method called endoscopic multiple biopsy (MB).
MB uses a single endoscope pass within the patient to obtain up to 25 biopsy specimens during withdrawal of the endoscope. These are collected and stored in a plastic chamber inside the removable metal tip of the endoscope. After completing the biopsy series, the metal tip is cut off, immersed in fixative, and sent to pathology. There, the plastic storage chamber’s design supports rapid logging of specimens, diagnosis by frozen section and microwave (one hour) or routine paraffin processing (four to six hours) of the specimen tissue.
For the study, biopsies were performed during colonoscopy, upper GI endoscopy, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The blinded retrospective study compared 125 colon surveillance biopsies in 15 patients who underwent MB with 15 patients who underwent forceps biopsies performed on the same day.
The researchers found that the processed MB specimens were not significantly different from batched processed forceps biopsy specimens for depth, orientation (done manually), fixation, artifacts, and diagnostic information. Multiple biopsy colonic specimens were significantly (26%) smaller but had better epithelial (cellular covering) preservation than forceps specimens. Each biopsy saves 61 seconds during withdrawal.
The authors concluded that single-pass MB reduces biopsy time with less specimen damage, work, workplace risk, and soiling. Diagnostic quality is equal to forceps biopsy with better cellular preservation, although 26% smaller. In pathology, the plastic chamber reduces work and workplace risk. MB speeds diagnosis and improves productivity in endoscopic biopsy and histopathologic processing (microscopic examination of biopsy samples for signs of or disease). They encourage larger studies at multiple centers to determine the value of MB for diagnosing a larger set of GI diseases.

American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
www.asge.org/home/about-asge/newsroom/news-list/2017/08/04/august-gie-studies-show-promising-results-for-patients-with-endoscopic-treatments