Clinicopathological Assessment of Gastric Xanthoma as Potential Predictive Marker of Gastric Cancer.

Background/aims: Gastric xanthomas are frequently observed in the stomach as small yellowish plaques or nodules. A close relationship among Helicobacter pylori infection, atrophic gastritis, and xanthomas has been reported. We assessed the clinicopathological features of gastric cancer with or without xanthomas.

Twig tea impaction in the colon causing abdominal pain.

We describe a case of lower abdominal pain caused by a twig tea impaction at the rectosigmoid junction after inadvertent ingestion. The foreign body was detected and successfully dislodged from the colonic wall with grasping forceps during colonoscopy. The post-procedural course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged 10 days after the removal.

Lessons from imperfect endoscopic submucosal dissection of rectal tumor.

Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) is a standard endoscopic treatment for gastrointestinal tumors, but resections done in a piecemeal fashion are difficult to diagnose pathologically as curative resections, and the local recurrence rate is relatively high. Recently, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for colorectal tumors, which provides a higher complete resection rate than conventional EMR, has rapidly come into widespread use in Japan. However, colorectal ESD is still technically difficult and has complications such as perforation, and the procedure time is longer than that of conventional EMR.