A high rate of PPB has been reported after large pedunculated polypectomy, and even though the application of prophylactic clips could reduce the incidence of PPB, there might be a risk of tumor remnants at the resection margin. Therefore, we first attempted to conduct UEMR to remove 10–20 mm pedunculated polyps of head size, and we found that UEMR had the advantages of low PPB risk (including IPPB and DPPB) as well as high en bloc resection, complete resection and R0 resection rates. In addition, no other serious adverse events were observed in the study.
In our study, 2 cases of slightly immediate bleeding (Grade 1, 6.3%) were observed, and both achieved successful control. As reported by Jae et al. [7], the IPPB rate was 9.0% after the application of prophylactically clipping the stem before CEMR for large pedunculated polyps (head size ≥ 10 mm), which was significantly lower than that of 31.4% without pre-polypectomy clipping. A study conducted by Gweon et al. [5] showed the similar results that the IPPB rate in the clip application group was 2.5%, and that in the non-clip application group was 10.9%. Our research did not use prophylactic clip closure, and the bleeding rate was obviously lower than that of CEMR without clips. The IPPB rate reported in our study seems to approximate what they reported in the clip application group. We considered that UEMR without prophylactic clips was potentially superior to CEMR without prophylactic clips and could also achieve the same effect of prophylactic clip placement. Generally, for pedunculated polyps with the existence of thick nourishing vessels in the stem, the application of the UEMR combined with coagulation mode could better block blood flow and reduce the occurrence of postpolypectomy bleeding even if clips are not used before resection [20, 21]. We mainly used the coagulation-only mode (59.4%) to remove polyps, which may be partly related to the low PPB rate.
Delayed bleeding is more significant than immediate bleeding because delayed hemorrhage occurs more insidiously and often during non-hospitalization, which may require repeated colonoscopy or transfusion [22–24]. However, the effect of prophylactic clips for large pedunculated polyps on DPPB is still controversial [25, 26]. The U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer guidelines recommend the application of prophylactic mechanical methods of the stalk, which can reduce DPPB [27], but a previous study [25] including 1147 polyps confirmed that the use of prophylactic hemoclips prior to resection (OR, 4.1; 95% CI, 1.3–13) was significantly associated with a risk of delayed bleeding for pedunculated polyps of head size larger than 20 mm. For 10–20 mm polyps, there were no studies showing that prophylactic clips could reduce DPPB. Our study included only pedunculated polyps of 10–20 mm, and none of them experienced delayed bleeding. This was a satisfactory result, even though it might be related to the low sample size. Nevertheless, we could try to explain it as follows. Electricity leaking to the hemoclip, resulting in insufficient coagulation of the blood vessel and lumen wall injury [25, 26], may lead to delayed hemorrhage. We postulated that the heat-sink effect of water immersion in UEMR would prevent thermal injury and reduce vascular damage to reduce the incidence of PPB, including IPPB and DPPB [9, 11].
Though The application of prophylactic clips could reduce the incidence of PPB [5, 7], Douglas K [8] pointed out that multiple adverse events, including bleeding, thermal injury and positive resection margins, should be synchronously considered in pedunculated polyp polypectomy. The application of prophylactic clips may make the resection difficult to get close to the polyp base, thus leading to positive resection margins. Low en bloc resection, complete resection and R0 resection rates are strongly associated with tumor recurrence [28, 29]. However, previous studies only assessed the effect of prophylactic clips for postpolypectomy bleeding while ignoring the risk of tumor residue [5, 7, 30]. The prophylactic placement of clips could hinder maximizing the distance between a cancer that may be present in the head of a pedunculated polyp and the resection line [8]. The UEMR as a method reported firstly in 2012 showed high complete resection and en bloc resection rates for large nonpedunculated colorectal polyps [19, 31], but the effect of UEMR on pedunculated polyps has not been reported yet. In our research, no mechanical approaches were used to clamp the stem after the bowel lumen was filled with water, and resection was performed as close to the base as possible. Notably, we found that all pedunculated polyps (100%) achieved en bloc resection, complete resection and R0 resection. During UEMR, the mucosa could better "float" [9] and the resection range was not restricted by clips, making the resection much more complete to reducing the risk of tumor remnants.
Perforation and postpolypectomy syndrome did not occur among the 32 polyps, which could owe to the fact that both adverse events were rare. Theoretically, the heat-sink effect and the floating mucosa away from the submucosal layer can reduce the occurrence of these adverse events. To our knowledge, this was the first prospective study to evaluate the efficacy of UEMR in resecting large pedunculated polyps and showed that UEMR has the potential to reduce the incidence of PPB and tumor residue simultaneously as well as other severe adverse events.
We acknowledge that there were some limitations in our study. First, this was a single-arm study without control groups. However, no serious PPB was observed in any of the 32 cases after polypectomy, and all cases achieved R0 resection and en bloc resection, which showed the potential advantages of UEMR in resecting pedunculated polyps. The randomized control trials with larger sample sizes are needed to further demonstrate the safety and efficacy of UEMR. Second, all wounds were closed after polypectomy, which did not affect the incidence of IPPB, but this might be a confounding factor in assessing the effect of UEMR on DPPB. It is difficult to distinguish whether the lack of DPPB in this study was due to "water", post-polypectomy clipping or the combined effect of both. Third, the included patients had no long-term follow-up data to monitor tumor recurrence, but these patients were scheduled for outpatient follow-up 3–6 months after polyp resection. In cases of recurrence, endoscopic therapy or surgical intervention was performed.
In conclusion, UEMR without the application of prophylactic clips showed a low postpolypectomy bleeding rate and low risk of tumor residual and other severe adverse events. Therefore, it might be suitable and safe for resection of 10–20 mm pedunculated polyps. However, randomized clinical trials are needed to further compare its efficacy and safety with other pedunculated polypectomy methods.