Background & study aims Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has markedly impacted routine medical services including gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy. We aim to report the real-life performance in high volume GI endoscopy units during the pandemic. Patients and methods A web-based survey covering all aspects of daily performance in GI endoscopy units was sent to endoscopy units worldwide. Responses were collected and data were analyzed to reveal the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on endoscopy practice. Results Participants from 48 countries (n = 163) responded to the survey with response rate of 67.35%. The majority (85%) decreased procedure volume by over 50%, and four endoscopy units (2.45%) completely stopped. The top three indications for procedures included upper GI bleeding (89.6%), lower GI bleeding (65.6%) and cholangitis (62.6%). The majority (93.9%) triaged patients for COVID-19 prior to procedure. N95 masks were used in (57.1%), isolation gowns in (74.2%) and head covers in (78.5%). Most centers (65%) did not extend use of N95 masks, however 50.9% of centers reused N95 masks. Almost all (91.4%) centers used standard endoscopic decontamination and most (69%) had no negative pressure rooms. Forty-two centers (25.8%) reported positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients and 50 (30.7%) centers reported positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection among their healthcare workers. Conclusions Most GI endoscopy centers had a significant reduction in their volume and most procedures performed were urgent. Most centers used the recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) by GI societies however there is still a possibility of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection in GI endoscopy units.

Structural changes in the colonic transplant were studied after esophagoplasty, carried out for post-burn cicatricial strictures of the esophagus. It was shown that artificial esophagus was liable to hypotony and deformation in delayed periods after reconstructive interventions. Regeneratory and adaptive reactions in the mucosa underlie its restructuring, while under pathological conditions proliferative catarrhal changes predominated in the artificial esophagus. The leading pathomorphological characteristics of the colonic transplant are epithelial degeneration, active, sometimes unbalanced proliferation, hyperplasia and hypersecretion of goblet cells, lymphoplasmacytic infiltration of the stroma paralleled by slight sclerosis. Modifications of the ultrastructural organization of cell populations in the Lieberkuhn crypts are determined by the intensity of pathological processes and are aimed at realization of the cytoprotective potential of the transplant mucosa.

Structural modifications of the gastric tube transplant were studied during the delayed period after esophagoplasty carried out for benign diseases of the esophagus. Adaptive and pathological reactions manifesting in atrophic and sclerotic changes in the mucosa formed the basis for transplant reorganization. The leading morphological markers were degeneration and hypersecretion of the foveolar epithelium, focal atrophy of the fundal glands with foci of pyloric metaplasia, hypertrophy and fibrosis of the muscle plate, and stromal sclerosis. Abundant polymorphonuclear infiltration of the mucosa with lymphoid follicular hyperplasia were observed in H. pylori contamination of the gastric transplant.

A preoperative diagnosis of solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs) in young male patients is difficult to achieve using radiological images. We herein present three cases of young male patients with relatively small SPNs. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) showed well-encapsulated, smooth-surfaced, heterogeneous solid lesions in all patients, and all preoperative diagnoses were achieved by EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA). The final pathological diagnosis after surgery was an SPN with a Ki-67 labeling index of <2%. SPNs should be considered even in young male patients. EUS with EUS-FNA could be a useful diagnostic modality for SPNs even in young male patients.

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