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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): 115392
Published online Jan 16, 2026. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.115392
Published online Jan 16, 2026. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.115392
Evaluating the safety and diagnostic performance of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy in the geriatric population
Zahabia Sohail, Aisha Jamal, Masood Muhammad Karim, Syedda Ayesha, Adeel Ur Rehman, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Sindh, Pakistan
Abdul Hadi Shahid, Medical College, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Sindh, Pakistan
Muhammad Bazil Musharraf, Centre of Excellence for Trauma and Emergency, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Sindh, Pakistan
Zeeshan Uddin, Section of Histopathology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Sindh, Pakistan
Co-first authors: Zahabia Sohail and Aisha Jamal.
Author contributions: Sohail Z and Jamal A contribute equally to this study as co-first authors; Sohail Z played a significant role in identifying the topic, shaping the project's conception and design, conducting literature search, and drafting the manuscript; Jamal A contributed to the project's conception and design, collecting and analysing data, and helped structure the manuscript; Karim MM assisted in shaping the project's conception and design, provided valuable insights into the data, cleaned the data, and wrote the manuscript; Ayesha S assisted in shaping the project's conception and design, helped in collecting the data and structuring the manuscript; Shahid AH assisted in shaping the project's conception and design, conducting a literature search, analysing the data, and structuring the manuscript; Musharraf MB contributed to collecting the data and structuring the manuscript; Uddin Z played a substantial role in interpreting the findings of fine-needle biopsy and histological slides and proofreading the manuscript; Rehman AU supervised the project, interpreting the findings, provided a critical review, made final edits, and ensured its accuracy and clarity with his expertise.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved as exemption by the institutional ethical review committee of Aga Khan University Hospital (Approval No. 6874-25427).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent from patients was exempted in this study, as approved by the institutional ethical review committee of Aga Khan University Hospital, because the study did not involve any direct human interaction and utilized data obtained after each patient had provided written consent for treatment. Furthermore, all patient identifiers were eliminated during data entry, and patient confidentiality was fully maintained.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available owing to confidentiality and institutional ethical policies but can be received from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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: Adeel Ur Rehman, Assistant Professor, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Aga Khan University, National Stadium Road P.O. Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Sindh, Pakistan. rehman.adeel@aku.edu
Received: October 17, 2025
Revised: November 6, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: January 16, 2026
Processing time: 91 Days and 13.6 Hours
Revised: November 6, 2025
Accepted: November 25, 2025
Published online: January 16, 2026
Processing time: 91 Days and 13.6 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This retrospective study evaluates the diagnostic yield and safety of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) in elderly patients with gastrointestinal lesions at a tertiary care centre in Pakistan. Using the Franseen needle and macroscopic on-site evaluation, EUS-FNB achieved 100% technical success and diagnostic yield with no reported procedural related complications. The median of two needle passes along with shorter average procedure time, making it highly feasible for the geriatric population. These findings support EUS-FNB as a safe, efficient, and minimally invasive alternative for tissue diagnosis in elderly patients, even in resource-constrained settings.