Is Lugol necessary for endoscopic resection of esophageal squamous cell neoplasia?

Abstract

<b>Background and study aims </b> Recent evidence suggests that lugol chromoendoscopy (LCE) and narrow-band imaging (NBI) have comparable sensitivity for detection of superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). However, LCE is time-consuming and associated with side effects. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of NBI and LCE in defining resection margins of esophageal SCC. <b>Patients and methods </b> This was a retrospective observational cohort study of patients with esophageal SCC and dysplasia who underwent en-bloc resection between 1999 and 2017 at the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels. Two groups were defined: 1) inspection with NBI only; and 2) inspection with LCE (with or without NBI). The primary endpoint was complete lateral resection rate. Multivariate regression was used to adjust for potential confounders. <b>Results </b> A total of 102 patients with 132 lesions were included. Lesions were inspected with LCE in 52 % (n = 68) and with NBI only in 48 % (n = 64). Lesions 0-IIa were more frequent in the NBI group (37 %) and 0-IIb (60 %) in LCE. Lesion location, size, and histology and resection technique (endoscopic submucosal dissection in 122/132 cases, 92 %) were similar between the groups. The rate of complete lateral resection for invasive carcinoma was 90 % in LCE group and 94 % in NBI group ( <i>P</i> = 0.498) and 65 % and 67 % ( <i>P</i> = 0.813), respectively, for dysplasia complete lateral resection. These results remained non-significant after adjusting for potential confounders. <b>Conclusions </b> Mucosal inspection and delineation of tumors with lugol chromoendoscopy before endoscopic resection of esophageal squamous cell lesions was not associated with increased complete lateral resection rate when compared to NBI.