Gkolfakis P, Tziatzios G, Spartalis E, Papanikolaou IS, Triantafyllou K. Colonoscopy attachments for the detection of precancerous lesions during colonoscopy: A review of the literature. World J Gastroenterol 2018; 24(37): 4243-4253 [PMID: 30310257 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i37.4243]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Konstantinos Triantafyllou, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Hepato-gastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine - Propaedeutic, Research Institute and Diabetes Center, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, ‘‘Attikon” University General Hospital, Rimini 1, Athens 12462, Greece. ktriant@med.uoa.gr
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 7, 2018; 24(37): 4243-4253 Published online Oct 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i37.4243
Colonoscopy attachments for the detection of precancerous lesions during colonoscopy: A review of the literature
Paraskevas Gkolfakis, Georgios Tziatzios, Eleftherios Spartalis, Ioannis S Papanikolaou, Konstantinos Triantafyllou
Paraskevas Gkolfakis, Georgios Tziatzios, Ioannis S Papanikolaou, Konstantinos Triantafyllou, Hepato-gastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine -Propaedeutic, Research Institute and Diabetes Center, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, ‘‘Attikon” University General Hospital, Athens 12462, Greece
Eleftherios Spartalis, Laboratory of Experimental Surgery and Surgical Research, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 12462, Greece
Author contributions: Triantafyllou K conceived the idea, revised and finally approved the manuscript; Gkolfakis P and Tziatzios G searched the literature and drafted the manuscript; Papanikolaou IS and Spartalis E revised and finally approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this publication.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Konstantinos Triantafyllou, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Hepato-gastroenterology Unit, Second Department of Internal Medicine - Propaedeutic, Research Institute and Diabetes Center, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, ‘‘Attikon” University General Hospital, Rimini 1, Athens 12462, Greece. ktriant@med.uoa.gr
Telephone: +30-210-5832087 Fax: +30-210-58326454
Received: June 11, 2018 Peer-review started: June 12, 2018 First decision: August 1, 2018 Revised: August 6, 2018 Accepted: August 24, 2018 Article in press: August 24, 2018 Published online: October 7, 2018
Abstract
Although colonoscopy has been proven effective in reducing the incidence of colorectal cancer through the detection and removal of precancerous lesions, it remains an imperfect examination, as it can fail in detecting up to almost one fourth of existing adenomas. Among reasons accounting for such failures, is the inability to meticulously visualize the colonic mucosa located either proximal to haustral folds or anatomic curves, including the hepatic and splenic flexures. In order to overcome these limitations, various colonoscope attachments aiming to improve mucosal visualization have been developed. All of them - transparent cap, Endocuff, Endocuff Vision and Endorings - are simply mounted onto the distal tip of the scope. In this review article, we introduce the rationale of their development, present their mode of action and discuss in detail the effect of their implementation in the detection of lesions during colonoscopy.
Core tip: Colonoscopy is the modality of choice for the detection and removal of precancerous lesions. However, almost one fourth of adenomas can be lost during conventional colonoscopy. Their location proximal to the colonic folds or in proximity to anatomic flexures is one of the reasons for this particular detection failure. To overcome this caveat, various single-use devices mounted onto the tip of the scope have been developed. They facilitate lesions’ detection by manipulating and flattening the haustral folds. In this Minireview we present the development of these devices (Cap, Endocuff, Endocuff Vision and Endorings) and their effectiveness in improving detection rates of lesions during colonoscopy.
