Review of the diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal bezoars

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with gastrointestinal bezoars and their response to therapy. Patients We retrospectively reviewed the cases of 19 patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal bezoars at the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences or one of 15 collaborating institutions between December 2004 and August 2013. We investigated the epidemiology and etiology of the gastrointestinal bezoars by determining the gender, age at diagnosis, medical history, symptoms, complications, modalities used for diagnosis, treatments, outcomes and bezoar location, color and contents. Results There were 17 patients with gastric bezoars and two patients with small intestinal bezoars. All patients were 62 years of age or older, except for one case of a trichobezoar in a 10-year-old patient. Some of the patients had a history of surgery of any part of the gastrointestinal tract (n=5) and/or diabetes mellitus (n=2). The two patients with small intestinal bezoars required surgical removal in order to relieve ileus. Approximately one-half of the patients with gastric bezoars had ulcerations in the stomach (9/17 patients, 52.9%) and/or gastrointestinal bleeding (8/17, 47.1%). Endoscopic fragmentation was performed in 10 patients, whereas bezoar dissolution was achieved with a gastroprokinetic agent (n=1) and without any treatment (n=3) in the remaining cases. Conclusion As previously reported, elderly individuals with a positive history of surgery and/or diabetes mellitus were observed in this bezoar patient series. Gastric ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding were frequently observed. The majority of patients underwent endoscopic fragmentation, while spontaneous resolution of the gastric bezoar was observed in several cases.

Summary: Background: Vonoprazan, a potassium‐competitive acid blocker, is expected to improve the healing of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD)‐induced gastric ulcers compared with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).Aim: To compare the healing status of ESD‐induced gastric ulcers and the incidence of post‐ESD bleeding between subjects treated with vonoprazan for 5 weeks and those treated with PPIs for 8 weeks.Methods: Patients in the vonoprazan group (n = 75) were prospectively enrolled, whereas patients in the PPI group (n = 150) were selected for a 2:1 matched historical control cohort according to baseline characteristics including gastric ulcer size immediately following ESD, age, sex and status of Helicobacter pylori infection. Two controls per case of vonoprazan‐treated group were matched with a margin of 20% in terms of ulcer size and a margin of 5 years in terms of their age.Results: Although a higher number of completely healed ulcers was observed in the PPI group (95/150, 63.3%) than that in the vonoprazan group (14/75, 18.7%; P < 0.001), the ulcer size reduction rates, which were 96.0 ± 6.7% in the vonoprazan group and 94.7 ± 11.6% in the PPI group, were not significantly different (P = 0.373). The post‐ESD bleeding incidence in the vonoprazan group (1/75, 1.3%) was less than that in the PPI group (15/150, 10.0%; P = 0.01). The factors affecting post‐ESD bleeding incidence were the type of acid secretion inhibitor (P = 0.016) and use of an anti‐thrombotic agent (P = 0.014).Conclusion: Vonoprazan significantly reduced post‐endoscopic submucosal dissection bleeding compared with PPIs.

Due to an increasing incidence and more frequent recognition by endoscopists, gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma has been established as a variant of follicular lymphoma. However, due to its rarity, there are no established guidelines on the optimal diagnostic strategy for patients with primary gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma or secondary gastrointestinal involvement of systemic follicular lymphoma. This review offers an overview and pitfalls to avoid during the initial diagnostic workup of this disease entity. Previously reported case reports, case series, and retrospective studies are reviewed and focus on the disease's endoscopic and histological features, the roles of computed tomography and positron emission tomography scanning, the clinical utility of the soluble interleukin-2 receptor, and the possible pathogenesis.

AIM: To evaluate the endoscopic manifestations and prognoses of gastrointestinal (GI) mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).