Rigorous scientific study of endoscopic adverse events requires not only a lexicon but a reliable reporting system.

摘要

I read with great interest the important article by Cotton et al1 on developing a lexicon for reporting endoscopic adverse events (AEs). Such a lexicon is highly important for standardized reports to scientifically and rigorously compare the risks of AEs among different techniques, endoscopists, institutions, and clinical studies. Although this article comprehensively reviews this subject, it only briefly addresses the critical related issue of data reliability attributed to underreporting of delayed AEs; serious AEs such as postpolypectomy hemorrhage and bowel perforation are often delayed and therefore can result in admission to a different hospital system, in which case the AE is missing from the medical record of the hospital at which the index endoscopy was performed.