With a long-held commitment to continuously improving the quality and safety of patient care, Mayo Clinic researchers are recommending a new technologically-advanced labeling system aimed at reducing specimen labeling errors in a high-volume gastrointestinal endoscopy center. That conclusion is based on the results of a study they are presenting at the 2008 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting.

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has issued updated guidelines on antibiotic prophylaxis for gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy based on the American Heart Association’s (AHA) recently revised guidelines for prophylaxis of infective endocarditis (IE). For endoscopic practice, the administration of prophylactic antibiotics solely to prevent IE is not recommended for patients who undergo GI-tract procedures.

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has issued guidelines for the role of endoscopy in treating dyspepsia, discomfort thought to arise from the upper-gastrointestinal tract, which affects a fourth of the population in Western countries.

Researchers at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Lebanon have found that administering a lidocaine lollipop as a single-agent anesthetic to patients undergoing an upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy procedure eliminated the need for sedation in the majority of patients.