Selvanderan SP, Lam E, Shahidi N. Endohepatology: Arrival at the frontier of interventional endosonography. World J Gastroenterol 2024; 30(18): 2397-2401 [PMID: 38764768 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i18.2397]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Neal Shahidi, FRCPC, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 770-1190 Hornby Street, Vancouver V6Z 1Y6, BC, Canada. nealshahidi@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2024; 30(18): 2397-2401 Published online May 14, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i18.2397
Endohepatology: Arrival at the frontier of interventional endosonography
Shane P Selvanderan, Eric Lam, Neal Shahidi
Shane P Selvanderan, Eric Lam, Neal Shahidi, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6Z 1Y6, BC, Canada
Author contributions: Selvanderan SP drafted the article; Lam E and Shahidi N contributed to the critical revision of the article for important intellectual content; Shahidi N approved the final article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Neal Shahidi, FRCPC, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 770-1190 Hornby Street, Vancouver V6Z 1Y6, BC, Canada. nealshahidi@gmail.com
Received: February 7, 2024 Revised: March 16, 2024 Accepted: April 19, 2024 Published online: May 14, 2024 Processing time: 93 Days and 19.8 Hours
Abstract
Endohepatology describes the emerging field where diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) are used for the diagnosis and management of liver disease and its sequelae. In this editorial we comment on the article by Gadour et al. The spectrum of EUS-guided procedures includes liver parenchymal and lesional biopsy, abscess drainage, treatment of focal liver lesions, diagnosis of portal hypertension and management of gastric varices. The data suggest that the application of EUS to hepatology is technically feasible and safe, heralding the arrival at a new frontier for EUS. More data, specifically randomised trials comparing EUS to interventional radiology techniques, and continued partnership between endoscopy and hepatology are required to see this field establish itself outside expert tertiary centres.
Core Tip: Endohepatology, where endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and hepatology are combined, allows for novel and minimally invasive ways to investigate and treat liver disease. These procedures, especially EUS-guided liver biopsy, portal pressure gradient measurement and obliteration of gastric varices, have now been demonstrated to be technically feasible and safe; thus, highlighting the continued expansion, and clinical implications of diagnostic and therapeutic EUS.
