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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2019; 25(1): 1-41
Published online Jan 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i1.1
Endoscopic foregut surgery and interventions: The future is now. The state-of-the-art and my personal journey
Kenneth J Chang
Kenneth J Chang, H.H. Chao Comprehensive Digestive Disease Center, University of California, Irvine Medical Center, Orange, CA 92868, United States
Author contributions: Chang KJ designed the overall concept, outline of this manuscript and was responsible for writing, and editing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Chang has either received educational grants or served as a consultant for the following companies (in alphabetical order): Apollo, Boston Scientific, Erbe, C2 Therapeutics, Cook, Covidien, Endogastric Solutions, Mederi, Medtronic, Olympus, Ovesco, Pentax, Torax.
Open-Access: 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/
Corresponding author: Kenneth J Chang, MD, FACG, FASGE, Professor, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division, H.H. Chao Comprehensive Digestive Disease Center, University of California, Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive, Orange, CA 92868, United States. kchang@uci.edu
Telephone: +1-714-4566187 Fax: +1-714-4567520
Received: November 28, 2018
Peer-review started: November 28, 2018
First decision: December 5, 2018
Revised: December 13, 2018
Accepted: December 14, 2018
Article in press: December 14, 2018
Published online: January 7, 2019
Processing time: 40 Days and 15.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: In this paper, we demonstrate how foregut diseases, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, achalasia, Barrett’s esophagus with dysplasia and early cancer of the esophagus and stomach, Zenker’s diverticulum, obesity, gastric outlet obstruction, and gastroparesis, which have been traditionally treated surgically are now being diagnosed and treated endoscopically. For each section, I will review “lessons learned”, then discuss some “technical considerations” and consider “future opportunities”.