Magnifying endoscopy for diagnosis of residual/local recurrent gastric neoplasms after previous endoscopic treatment

Incomplete resection of gastric neoplasms by endoscopic treatment could lead to residual/local recurrence, which may be difficult to identify. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of magnifying endoscopy for identifying and demarcating residual/local recurrent gastric neoplasms after endoscopic treatment. Between December 2004 and November 2010, magnifying endoscopy was performed in 15 patients with residual/local recurrent gastric neoplasms. All patients underwent conventional magnifying endoscopy (CME) and enhanced-magnification endoscopy with acetic acid instillation (EME) after conventional endoscopy (CE). Eleven patients additionally underwent magnifying endoscopy using narrow-band imaging (NBI-ME) and a combination of narrow-band imaging and acetic acid instillation (NBI-EME). For each procedure, it was recorded whether the location and circumferential demarcation of the lesions were identified. All lesions were resected by endoscopic submucosal dissection. Eleven lesions were identified using CE. However, two and four additional lesions were identified using CME and EME, respectively. In 11 cases, NBI-ME and NBI-EME were performed and all lesions were identified. Three lesions, which were identified by CME, were not demarcated circumferentially. All 15 lesions were well demarcated by EME and 11 by NBI-ME and NBI-EME. Of the resected specimens, histopathology indicated that ten lesions were differentiated tubular adenocarcinomas and five lesions were adenomas. The histopathological diagnosis of the location and demarcation of all neoplasms corresponded to endoscopic findings. Magnifying endoscopy techniques (CME, EME, NBI-ME, and NBI-EME) may be useful for identifying and demarcating residual/local recurrent gastric neoplasms after previous endoscopic treatment.