Use of clip closure significantly reduced delayed bleeding in patients who underwent resections for large colorectal lesions, based on data from 235 individuals.
Source: American Gastroenterological Association
“Closure of a mucosal defect with clips after resection has long been considered to reduce the risk of bleeding,” but evidence to support this practice is limited, wrote Eduardo Albéniz, MD, of the Public University of Navarra (Spain), and colleagues.
In a study published in Gastroenterology, the researchers identified 235 consecutive patients who had resections of large nonpedunculated colorectal lesions from May 2016 to June 2018. Patients had an average or high risk of delayed bleeding and were randomized to receive scar closure with either 11-mm through-the-scope clips (119 patients) or no clip (116 patients).
Delayed bleeding occurred in 14 control patients (12.1%), compared with 6 clip patients (5%), for a risk reduction of 7%. The clip group included 68 cases (57%) of complete closure and 33 cases (28%) with partial closure, as well as 18 cases of failure to close (15%); only 1 case of delayed bleeding occurred in the clip group after completion of clip closure. On average, six clips were needed for complete closure.
None of the patients who experienced delayed bleeding required surgical or angiographic intervention, although 15 of the 20 patients with bleeding underwent additional endoscopy. Other adverse events included immediate bleeding in 21 clip patients and 18 controls that was managed with snare soft-tip coagulation. No deaths were reported in connection with the study.
Demographics were similar between the two groups, but the subset of patients with complete closure included more individuals aged 75 years and older and more cases with smaller polyps, compared with other subgroups, the researchers noted.
The study findings were limited by several factors, including the difficulty in predicting delayed bleeding, the potential for selection bias given the timing of patient randomization, the lack of information about polyps that were excluded from treatment, and the difficulty in completely closing the mucosal defects, the researchers noted. However, the results suggest that complete clip closure, despite its challenges, “displays a clear trend to reduce delayed bleeding risk,” and is worth an attempt.
The study was supported by the Spanish Society of Digestive Endoscopy. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose. MicroTech (Nanjing, China) contributed the clips used in the study.
SOURCE: Albéniz E et al. Gastroenterology. 2019 Jul 27. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2019.07.037.