Luo LQ, Xu XP, Zhang YY, Zhou C, Wu MH. Endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy: Progress in clinical application. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2026; 18(1): 115213 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.115213]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ming-Hao Wu, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, No. 61 Jiefang West Road, Furong District, Changsha 410005, Hunan Province, China. wuminghao1976@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Scientific Journal
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
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/
Li-Qin Luo, Xiao-Ping Xu, Yu-Yang Zhang, Cong Zhou, Ming-Hao Wu, Department of Gastroenterology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, Changsha 410005, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: Luo LQ collected data and wrote paper; Xu XP and Wu MH revised paper; Zhang YY and Zhou C collected data; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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: Ming-Hao Wu, PhD, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, Hunan Normal University, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, No. 61 Jiefang West Road, Furong District, Changsha 410005, Hunan Province, China. wuminghao1976@163.com
Received: October 14, 2025 Revised: October 21, 2025 Accepted: November 26, 2025 Published online: January 16, 2026 Processing time: 96 Days and 11.5 Hours
Abstract
Appendicitis is the most common abdominal surgery emergency across the globe, and one of the main reasons considered is the obstruction of appendix, primarily induced by fecal stones. With a growing appeal for treating appendicitis with appendix retain, endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy (ERAT) emerges as the times dictates, which is a new method to diagnose and treat appendicitis. It has been confirmed that compared with not only conservative medical treatment but also appendectomy, ERAT has outstanding advantages in treating acute uncomplicated appendicitis and appendiceal abscess. Meanwhile, there are some cases about ERAT in other types of appendicitis, such as perforating appendicitis, stump appendicitis and chronic appendicitis. This paper aims at summarizing the current progress of ERAT for doctors to use in clinical practice.
Core Tip: Endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy (ERAT) is a feasible, safe, and economical alternative treatment of acute uncomplicated appendicitis, even complicated appendicitis can be an indication of ERAT and the contraindications to ERAT may just be patients who are unable to routine colonoscopy. The potential risk of ERAT is recurrence due to the retain of appendix, which needs more observation. Further research, such as prospective multicenter randomized clinical trials, is necessary to determine the effectiveness and safety of ERAT in various types of appendicitis.
