Observation Time for Complete Endoscopy in Gastric Cancer Screening

Abstract

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) has been used in gastric cancer screening in Korea. Complete EGD requires quality control. Few quality indicator studies of EGD have been conducted despite its frequent use for identifying upper gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy. In addition, limited evidence exists showing that longer examination time increases the detection rate of upper GI neoplasia. A few studies have reported on the outcome measures of quality indicators in EGD. These studies suggested that long endoscopic examination time increases the detection rate of neoplasms or high-risk lesions in the upper GI tract. A recent Korean study evaluated the association between examination time and the detection rate of neoplasms in EGD. In this study, we showed that endoscopists with prolonged observation time had a higher detection rate of upper GI neoplasms. Extending the examination time will allow for more careful examination by the endoscopists enabling the detection of more subtle lesions. Further studies are needed to establish the appropriate endoscopic observation time as a quality indicator in Korea.

Keywords

• Endoscopy
• Quality indicators
• Stomach neoplasms