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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2026; 18(1): 114033
Published online Jan 16, 2026. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.114033
Published online Jan 16, 2026. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.114033
Endoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal perforations and leaks: Why, when, and how?
Adonis A Protopapas, Vaia Kyritsi, Christos Savopoulos, Department of First Propaedeutic Internal Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA University Hospital, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece
Dimitrios Tsavdaris, Antonios Michalopoulos, Daniel Paramythiotis, Department of First Propaedeutic Surgery, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA University Hospital, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece
Alexandros Mekras, Department of General and Visceral Surgery, Elisabeth Hospital, Wittlich 54516, Germany
Author contributions: Protopapas AA and Kyritsi V contributed to drafting; Protopapas AA, Kyritsi V, Tsavdaris D, and Mekras A contributed to final approval and critical revision for important intellectual content, and final approval; Protopapas AA, Kyritsi V, Savopoulos C, Michalopoulos A, and Paramythiotis D contributed to conception and design; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
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: Daniel Paramythiotis, Full Professor, Department of First Propaedeutic Surgery, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA University Hospital, St. Kyriakidi 1, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece. danosprx@auth.gr
Received: September 10, 2025
Revised: September 28, 2025
Accepted: December 3, 2025
Published online: January 16, 2026
Processing time: 127 Days and 17.6 Hours
Revised: September 28, 2025
Accepted: December 3, 2025
Published online: January 16, 2026
Processing time: 127 Days and 17.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Endoscopic management of perforations and leaks is becoming more and more prevalent. Additionally, new endoscopic modalities are constantly added to the gastroenterologist’s therapeutic arsenal, further reinforcing the concept of endoscopic closure as the initial treatment of choice in many cases. Gastroenterologists should be aware of current closure techniques and be able to determine which patients should be treated endoscopically and by which modality.