Cold-snare endoscopic resection of non-ampullary duodenal adenomas: Systematic review and pooled-analysis

Background: Mirroring the experience with colonic resections, cold snare-based techniques have been recently proposed for non-ampullary duodenal lesions to reduce the risk of adverse events (AEs). As the duodenal wall is thinner and more vascularized than in the colon, electrocautery-related AEs are relevant issues in this setting.

Aims: We performed a systematic review with pooled-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this technique.

Methods: Electronic databases (Medline, Scopus, EMBASE) were searched up to January 2023. Full articles including patients with duodenal lesions resected by cold-snare technique were eligible. The adverse events (i.e., bleeding, perforation, stricture), complete resection, and recurrence rates were pooled using a random model.

Results: Eleven studies were eligible, providing data on 3137 lesions removed from 233 patients. The overall AE rate for cold snaring was 0.25% (95% CI, 0.19%-0.69%). Among the three studies comparing cold- and hot-snare approaches, procedure-related bleeding rate was significantly lower with cold approach (OR 1.21, 0.51-2.85; p = 0.66). The complete resection rate was 99.40% (95% CI, 98.60%-100%), with a residual/recurrence rate of 12.95% (95% CI, 4.75%-21.16%). On univariate meta-regression, lesion size significantly affected both the adverse events and recurrence risk.

Conclusion: Cold-snare resection appears effective and extremely safe for resecting non-ampullary duodenal lesions.