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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Dec 16, 2025; 17(12): 110842
Published online Dec 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i12.110842
Published online Dec 16, 2025. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v17.i12.110842
Impact of referral delays on dysphagia outcomes in a Saudi tertiary center
Khaled M AlQahtani, Abdulkreem A AlNasser, Ali M AlQahtani, Shakir A Bakkari, Ameen M Jaddoh, Thamer A Aldarsouny, Toufic G Semaan, Mohamed S Elbayoumy, Ibrahim M Alruzug, Alhumidi A Alenezi, Mohammed S Bin-Ofaysan, Mohammed O Alsager, Hatim S Alshahrani, Sultan M Alhaddad, Hisham N Almuhayzi, Rana A Almousa, Awad J Shehada, Adnan A AlMasri, Manhal K Aldaher, Mostafa E Maaly, Ihab M Hafez, Saeed R Alzubide, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh 12746, Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz A AlTurki, Aseel K Aljaili, Abdulkhaleq H Alamri, Ali S Owayed, Yasser W Asiri, Department of Internal Medicine, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh 12746, Saudi Arabia
Co-first authors: Khaled M AlQahtani and Abdulkreem A AlNasser.
Author contributions: AlQahtani KM, AlNasser AA, and Alzubide SR performed the research; AlQahtani KM and AlNasser AA performed the research and designed the research study as the co-first authors of the paper; AlQahtani KM and Alzubide SR analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; AlQahtani KM, AlNasser AA, AlQahtani AM, AlTurki AA, Aljaili AK, Alamri AH, Owayed AS, Asiri YW, Bakkari SA, Jaddoh AM, Aldarsouny TA, Semaan TG, Elbayoumy MS, Alruzug IM, Alenezi AA, Bin-Ofaysan MS, Alsager MO, Alshahrani HS, Alhaddad SM, Almuhayzi HN, Almousa RA, Shehada AJ, AlMasri AA, Aldaher MK, Maaly ME, Hafez IM, and Alzubide SR designed the research study; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Board at King Saud Medical City, No. H1RI-03-Jun24-01.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this work.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix and dataset available from the corresponding author at salzubide1551@gmail.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
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: Saeed R Alzubide, Consultant, Head of GI Motility Unit, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, King Saud Medical City, 7642 Al Imam Abdulaziz Bin Mohammad Bin Saud Street, Riyadh 12746, Saudi Arabia. dr.zubide@gmail.com
Received: June 18, 2025
Revised: August 29, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: December 16, 2025
Processing time: 181 Days and 21.5 Hours
Revised: August 29, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: December 16, 2025
Processing time: 181 Days and 21.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This is a retrospective analysis of 168 dysphagia patients, which shows that delays > 2 weeks are common (44%-50%), but early endoscopy significantly improves outcomes (84.6% vs 76.0% improvement, P = 0.012). Despite prioritised referral of malignant cases, the prognosis was dismal which underscores the importance of earlier patient presentation. Direct endoscopy within 2 weeks, mainly prioritising streamlined pathways for alarm features, could be a more cost-effective approach in management and can lead to better survival rates.