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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2015; 21(31): 9273-9285
Published online Aug 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i31.9273
Endoscopic full-thickness resection: Current status
Arthur Schmidt, Benjamin Meier, Karel Caca
Arthur Schmidt, Benjamin Meier, Karel Caca, Department of Gastroenterology and Oncology, Klinikum Ludwigsburg, 71640 Ludwigsburg, Germany
Author contributions: Schmidt A drafted the manuscript, collected and analysed the data together with Meier B; and Caca K reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, KMU-innovativ: OntoVigilance SWS365-065, FKZ 01|S12038A) within a subcontract with novineon GmbH (partly).
Conflict-of-interest statement: Arthur Schmidt and Karel Caca have received lectures fees from Ovesco Endoscopy for full-thickness resection device training courses. The authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
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: Arthur Schmidt, MD, Department of Gastroenterology and Oncology, Klinikum Ludwigsburg, Posilipo-Str. 1-4, 71640 Ludwigsburg, Germany. karel.caca@kliniken-lb.de
Telephone: +49-7141-9967201 Fax: +49-7141-9967209
Received: April 4, 2015
Peer-review started: April 7, 2015
First decision: April 23, 2015
Revised: May 16, 2015
Accepted: July 3, 2015
Article in press: July 3, 2015
Published online: August 21, 2015
Processing time: 137 Days and 15.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Endoscopic full-thickness resection is an evolving technique, which is just about to enter clinical routine. It is not only a powerful tool for diagnostic tissue acquisition but also has the potential to spare surgical therapy in selected patients. This review gives an overview about the current status of endoscopic full-thickness resection. General principles, indications and resection techniques and -devices will be discussed in detail on the basis of currently available literature.