Background/Aims: The prevalence of Barrett's esophagus might also be changing along with changes in the epidemiology of GERD, and the incidence of Barrett's cancer is expected to increase even more. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinicopathologic features and outcome of the patients with Barrett's cancer and who were seen at a single institution over a period of 13 years.

Methods: The records of 39 patients with the esophageal adenocarcinoma and who were treated at Samsung Medical Center from January 1995 to August 2008 were reviewed. Among them, 11 patients (28%) with histologically-confirmed Barrett's cancer were included in the study. The clinicopathological features, endoscopic manifestations and treatment outcome were evaluated.

Results: The male to female ratio was 10：1. The mean age was 64 years. Most of the patients were diagnosed with Barrett's cancer after 2000, and there were three such patients (27.3%) in 2008. The frequent chief complaints were epigastric pain (27.3%) and chronic acid reflux symptom (18.2%). Three patients (27.3%) were detected incidentally during screening endoscopy. The macroscopic types based on the endoscopic findings were as follows: 4 lesions with a type IIa appearance (36.4%) and 2 with a type IIb appearance (18.2%). The mean tumor size was 1.2 cm at the longest dimension and 0.8 cm at the shortest dimension. Tumor was located in the mucosal layer in six cases (54.5%) and the 5 cases (45.5%) showed submucosal invasion. Lymph node metastasis was found in one case (9.1%). All the cases underwent surgery, except one case for which the tumor was removed by endoscopic submucosal dissection. There was no recurrence during the follow up period.

Conclusions: As the incidence of Barrett's cancer is increasing, a standard surveillance program that includes the endoscopic biopsy method, the grading system for the dysplasia and the treatment modality should be established. (Korean J Gastrointest Endosc 2009;38:68-74)

Background/Aims: The colonoscopic withdrawal time has been proposed as a quality indicator for colonoscopy, and this is based on the recent evidence that the Colon withdrawal time is associated with adenoma detection rate. In this study, we examined the difference of the polyp detection rates between practicing endoscopists, and we analysed certain factors that might lead to such differences, and particularly the colonoscopic withdrawal time.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the colonoscopic procedures that were performed by 7 second-year GI fellows at Hanyang University Guri Hospital. A total of 1,515 colonoscopies were assessed for the polyp detection rate, the insertion time, the withdrawal time, bowel preparation, the size of the detected polyps and the location of polyps.

Results: The median withdrawal time for the case with no polyps removed was 3.6 to 7.1 minutes. There was a strong positive correlation between the colonoscopic withdrawal times and the polyp detection rates (p＜0.001). Furthermore, a longer withdrawal time resulted in discovering a higher percentage of small polyps. On comparing groups, the group of colonoscopists with a withdrawal time longer than 6 minutes had a higher rate of detecting polyps (30.7% vs 18.4%, p＜0.001).

Conclusions: There is wide range of polyp detection rates among practicing colonoscopists and there is strong positive correlation between the colonoscopic withdrawal times and the rate of detecting polyps. A long enough withdrawal time, perhaps 7 minutes, is needed to raise the rate of detecting polyps during colonoscopy. (Korean J Gastrointest Endosc 2009;38:75-79)