Can Gastric Juice Analysis with EndoFaster<sup>®</sup> Reduce the Environmental Impact of Upper Endoscopy?

oleh: Angelo Zullo, Federica Chiovelli, Enrica Esposito, Cesare Hassan, Beatrice Casini

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-12-01

Deskripsi

Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy services are in third place as major contributors to CO<sub>2</sub> emissions among healthcare facilities, especially due to their massive waste production. One of the measures suggested to reduce this environmental impact is a reduction in histological examinations performed on biopsy specimens taken during endoscopy. A reliable candidate to reduce the rate of biopsies and, consequently, the impact of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions could be EndoFaster<sup>®</sup>, an innovative medical device that allows one to suspect or rule out both <i>H. pylori</i> infection and precancerous lesions on the gastric mucosa by analyzing a small amount of gastric juice aspirated during endoscopy in real time. In the present study, we investigated the ability of EndoFaster<sup>®</sup> to reduce the environmental impact of upper endoscopy, comparing the CO<sub>2</sub> production of standard biopsy sampling as suggested in guidelines and biopsies guided by real-time EndoFaster<sup>®</sup> results during endoscopy. By estimating an overall 90% rate of biopsies according to standard guidelines and a reduction of 50% of gastric biopsies based on EndoFaster<sup>®</sup> results, we calculated a 44% overall reduction in CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, demonstrating that by using this tool, it is possible to distinctly reduce the contribution of upper endoscopy to global warming.