Management of Endoscopic Complications

Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is an important tool for the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of gastrointestinal and biliopancreatic conditions. Over 60 million upper and lower endoscopies are performed annually (National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2009, with special feature on medical technology. National Center for Health Statistics: Hyattsville, MD, 2010). Overall complications or adverse events from upper GI endoscopy are about 0.1 %, less than 3 % for colonoscopy, and 5–10 % for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (Eisen et al., Gastrointest Endosc 55:784–793, 2002). The vast majority of complications occur with therapeutic endoscopy, such as polypectomy, endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR), submucosal dissection (ESD) or sphincterotomy (ES); thrombocytopenia; coagulopathy; portal hypertension; NSAIDs.