Clinical outcomes of argon plasma coagulation for the treatment of gastric low-grade dysplasia.

Abstract

336 Background: Argon plasma coagulation (APC) could be considered a treatment modality for small gastric low-grade dysplasia (LGD) instead of endoscopic resection (ER). Our study investigated the clinical outcomes of APC for treating gastric LGD and associated variables with local recurrence. Methods: This study included 911 patients who underwent APC for gastric neoplasms at the tertiary hospital from July 2007 to March 2022 with a minimal follow-up of 12 months. 112 subjects without any information about H. pylori infection status, 164 subjects who underwent APC for salvage therapy, 5 subjects with high grade dysplasia, and 12 subjects with cancer were excluded. Through a retrospective review of medical data, the clinical outcomes and variables associated with the local recurrence were analyzed. Results: A total of 618 patients with LGD (median age of 64 years old) were followed up for a median of 30 months and local recurrence has happened in 21 patients (3.4%). Multivariate analysis showed lesion size (hazard ratio 1.06, 95% confidential interval 1.01–1.12) was associated with the local recurrence. Among 557 lesions smaller than 10 mm, local recurrence was found in 14 cases (2.6%) and local recurrence was in 7 cases (9.5%) of 109 tumors larger than 10 mm ( p <0.004). Conclusions: In gastric LGD smaller than 10 mm without scars, APC is a good treatment modality in place of ER. However, when a lesion is larger, APC should be selected carefully with close monitoring. [Table: see text]