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Direct oral anticoagulants are being increasingly used in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism, due to their improved efficacy/ safety ratio, a predictable anticoagulant effect without need for routine coagulation monitoring, and fewer food and drug interactions compared with vitamin K antagonists. Gastrointestinal bleeding remains a serious complication, whose management is challenging for gastroenterologists due to the lack of a standardized clinical approach. Clinical experience on periendoscopic management of these drugs is still limited and there is a paucity of clinical data supporting guidelines recommendations’, and this ultimately turns out in different, unsubstantiated and potentially harmful practices of patient management. Present study will provide a thorough revision on the risk of GI bleeding for DOAC therapy and the identification of patient risk factors to individualize treatment. Moreover, the approach to management of DOACs in case of bleeding complications is discussed, and an algorithm of different strategies in presence or not of plasma level measurement is proposed. Finally the periendoscopic management for elective procedures will be reviewed, at the light of the guideline recommendations and new evidences from observational studies.

In the above-mentioned article, the name of Enrique Rodriguez de Santiago has been corrected. This was corrected in the online version on June 17, 2021. In the above-mentioned article, the institutions of Daniele Regge have been corrected. This was corrected in the online version on July 8, 2021. © 2021 Georg Thieme Verlag. All rights reserved.

Main Recommendations Prophylaxis 1 ESGE recommends routine rectal administration of 100 mg of diclofenac or indomethacin immediately before endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in all patients without contraindications to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug administration. Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 2 ESGE recommends prophylactic pancreatic stenting in selected patients at high risk for post-ERCP pancreatitis (inadvertent guidewire insertion/opacification of the pancreatic duct, double-guidewire cannulation). Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 3 ESGE suggests against routine endoscopic biliary sphincterotomy before the insertion of a single plastic stent or an uncovered/partially covered self-expandable metal stent for relief of biliary obstruction. Weak recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 4 ESGE recommends against the routine use of antibiotic prophylaxis before ERCP. Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 5 ESGE suggests antibiotic prophylaxis before ERCP in the case of anticipated incomplete biliary drainage, for severely immunocompromised patients, and when performing cholangioscopy. Weak recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 6 ESGE suggests tests of coagulation are not routinely required prior to ERCP for patients who are not on anticoagulants and not jaundiced. Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. Treatment 7 ESGE suggests against salvage pancreatic stenting in patients with post-ERCP pancreatitis. Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. 8 ESGE suggests temporary placement of a biliary fully covered self-expandable metal stent for post-sphincterotomy bleeding refractory to standard hemostatic modalities. Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. 9 ESGE suggests to evaluate patients with post-ERCP cholangitis by abdominal ultrasonography or computed tomography (CT) scan and, in the absence of improvement with conservative therapy, to consider repeat ERCP. A bile sample should be collected for microbiological examination during repeat ERCP. Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart New York.

Background & Aims: Efficacy of bowel preparation is an important determinant of outcomes of colonoscopy. It is not clear whether approved low-volume polyethylene glycol (PEG) and non-PEG regimens are as effective as high-volume PEG regimens when taken in a split dose. Methods: In a systematic review of multiple electronic databases through January 31, 2019 with a registered protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42019128067), we identified randomized controlled trials that compared low- vs high-volume bowel cleansing regimens, administered in a split dose, for colonoscopy. The primary efficacy outcome was rate of adequate bowel cleansing, and the secondary efficacy outcome was adenoma detection rate. Primary tolerability outcomes were compliance, tolerability, and willingness to repeat. We calculated relative risk (RR) and 95% CI values and assessed heterogeneity among studies by using the I2 statistic. The overall quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE framework. Results: In an analysis of data from 17 randomized controlled trials, comprising 7528 patients, we found no significant differences in adequacy of bowel cleansing between the low- vs high-volume split-dose regimens (86.1% vs 87.4%; RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.98–1.02) and there was minimal heterogeneity (I2 = 17%). There was no significant difference in adenoma detection rate (RR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.87–1.08) among 4 randomized controlled trials. Compared with high-volume, split-dose regimens, low-volume split-dose regimens had higher odds for compliance or completion (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02–1.10), tolerability (RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.12–1.74), and willingness to repeat bowel preparation (RR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.20–1.66). The overall quality of evidence was moderate. Conclusions: Based on a systematic review of 17 randomized controlled trials, low-volume, split-dose regimens appear to be as effective as high-volume, split-dose regimens in bowel cleansing and are better tolerated, with superior compliance. © 2020 AGA Institute

Background: Although diverticular disease is a common condition, its effective treatment is challenging in clinical practice. Objective: The objective of this article is to assess pharmacological management in different clinical settings of diverticular disease and factors associated with treatment using the Italian registry Registro Malattia Diverticolare (REMAD). Methods: At study enrolment, patients were categorised into subgroups: diverticulosis, symptomatic uncomplicated diverticular disease and previous diverticulitis. We registered demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors, quality of life and the use of treatments for diverticular disease in the last year. Logistic regression analysis assessed the association between clinical factors and treatment consumption. Results: A total of 500 of the 1206 individuals included had had at least one treatment for diverticular disease in the last year: 23.6% (166/702) of patients with diverticulosis, 55.9% (165/295) of patients with symptomatic diverticular disease, and 80.9% (169/209) of patients with previous diverticulitis (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, the following factors were significantly associated with treatment use: female gender, family history of colonic diverticula, organic digestive comorbidity and impaired physical quality of life components. Conclusion: Individuals with diverticular disease take medications based on the different clinical settings of disease. We identified different features associated with treatment use in the distinct clinical entities of diverticular disease. ClinicalTrial.gov Identifier: NCT03325829.

Background Examining the current practice is important for the benchmarking of quality of colonoscopy and the comparison with the standards and recommendations expected by professional societies. Aim To describe colonoscopy practice in Italy, on the basis of prospective analysis of a large number of examinations performed by operators with different levels of expertise in a wide range of unselected centres. Design and setting Cross-sectional, prospective and multicentre study. Methods The main features of each endoscopy centre (structure indicators) were collected through the use of a standardised questionnaire. A second questionnaire was used to prospectively record details of all the consecutive colonoscopies performed in a 2-week study period. Results Data from 278 centres and 12,835 consecutive colonoscopies were evaluated. Centres were uniformly distributed throughout Italy – north, centre and south – as was their organizational complexity and workload. Overall, adequate facilities (i.e. cleaning area for disinfection/reprocessing, equipped recovery room), and safety equipment (i.e. pulse oximetry, equipment for emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation) were lacking in a considerable amount of centres, especially in those with a lower degree of organizational complexity. Written informed consent was routinely required in 87% of the centres, but a specific consent for colonoscopy, including detailed information on adverse events, was adopted by 66%. Regular programs for recording some quality indicators (i.e. cecal intubation, quality of bowel cleansing, patients’ satisfaction and complications) were implemented in a minority of centres. About 93% of the colonoscopies were performed for diagnostic purpose; screening and surveillance accounted for 13.7% and 25.3% of the indications, respectively. Sedation and/or analgesia was administered in about half of the patients. Overall, colonoscopies were completed to the cecum in 80.7% of cases, and only 22.1% of the centres reported a cecal intubation rate ≥90%; this figure was reported in 33.1% of centres with high-organizational complexity and in 14.4% of outpatient units. The overall incidence of immediate complications was low (2 perforations, 26 bleedings and 32 serious cardiorespiratory complications). Conclusions This study documented a wide variation in colonoscopy practice between centres and highlighted problem areas where interventions are needed to improve performance and safety of the examinations.

State of the art X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) of reservoir rock samples and cuttings allows reconstruction of the pore network with micrometric spatial resolution that is suitable for further petrophysical and fluid flow properties evaluation. Synchrotron tomographic beam lines, compared to conventional micro-CT systems, allow better 3D representation of the pore space. The digital rock volume is used for medial axis extraction and for 3D pore space morphological characterization (i.e. connectivity, pore-body/throat size, shape factors, etc.). The medial axis is generally derived by computed intensive digital-thinning operations for skeletonization of the digital rock volume. The alternative method we describe in this work, allows to extract the 3D centered and shortest paths to follow in order to go through the pore space from any given point to another one using simple and well-established mathematical methods. Even if we do not consider explicitly fluid flow, one path can be viewed as the streamline of the fastest fluid thread for laminar flow regime that a particle follows to go through the pore space from an intrusion point to an exiting point of the digital sample. The method is very fast, processing large voxel volumes in seconds, and it is also amenable to parallelization. The conductance of the irregular cross-sections of the throats is calculated with a fast finite element method (f.e.m.) that assumes fully developed laminar flow in axial direction. The network is solved as a linear system and the absolute permeability derived. The paper reports the results of application on real oil reservoir sandstone samples and shows the potential to predict petrophysical properties from rock material (i.e. drilling cuttings or crushed side wall cores) not suitable for conventional analyses.

Reported here is the case of a 6-week-old female infant with a severe Bordetella pertussis infection requiring supportive pressure-positive ventilation in the intensive care unit. After being discharged from the intensive care unit, she developed hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia and acute renal failure, which suggested a diagnosis of hemolytic uremic syndrome. The clinical outcome was favorable with no renal consequences. This case suggests there may be a direct cause-effect relationship between B. pertussis infection and hemolytic uremic syndrome.