SESSION DAY & DATE: Saturday, May 21, 2022 SESSION START TIME: 10:00 AM SESSION END TIME: 11:30 AM
CATEGORY: Clinical Endoscopic Practice 3 SESSION FORMAT: Lecture
SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF BARRETT'S ESOPHAGUS (BE) AND RELATED DYSPLASIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN ANALYSIS OF THE GIQUIC NATIONAL BENCHMARKING REGISTRY

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2022.04.358Get rights and content

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DDW 2022 Author Disclosures

Sachin Wani: NO financial relationship with a commercial interest | Jeffrey Williams: NO financial relationship with a commercial interest | Jennifer Holub: NO financial relationship with a commercial interest | Audrey Calderwood: YES financial relationship with a commercial interest;Dark Canyon Laboratoties:Advisory Committees or Review Panels | Jason Dominitz: NO financial relationship with a commercial interest | Prasad Iyer: YES financial relationship with a commercial interest;Exact

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted endoscopy practices with significant reductions in procedural capacity creating unprecedented decreases in cancer screening and surveillance services. Using a national registry with matched endoscopy and pathology data, we aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on the proportion of patients diagnosed with BE and BE-related dysplasia and adherence to established quality indicators in BE.

Methods

We analyzed data from the GI Quality Improvement Consortium (GIQuIC) Registry, a national repository of endoscopy data. Procedure data from all EGDs in the registry during the study period, including procedure indication, demographics, endoscopy findings, pathology results and recommendations were assessed from 1/2018 – 5/2021.

Three cohorts based on date of EGD performance were created: Pre-pandemic (1/2018-2/2020), Early Pandemic (3/2020-7/2020) and Late-pandemic (8/2020-5/2021). Observed and

Results

Among 1,619,684 EGDs assessed, 94,081 (5.8%) met inclusion criteria (Table 1). These cases were largely performed by GIs and represented 394 practices and 2666 endoscopists nationwide with geographic distribution within the U.S. as follows: West 24%, Midwest 13%, South 40%, and Northeast 23%. Fewer endoscopies were performed by non-GIs during the early (1.5%) and late pandemic (1.5%) compared to pre-pandemic period (9.3%, p<0.001). The mean BE length was 2.3 (2.5) cm and distribution based on

Conclusions

Results of this study demonstrate a significant decline in EGD volume with an associated reduction in the number of patients diagnosed with BE and related dysplasia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of a compensatory increase in diagnoses in the late pandemic period is concerning with likely long-term deleterious downstream effects on esophageal adenocarcinoma morbidity and mortality.

. EGD characteristics, Barrett's esophagus and related dysplasia diagnosis and adherence to quality

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