Introduction: Topical hemostatic agents have been used to reduce bleeding rates after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for gastric cancer. However, to date, no review has summarized evidence on their efficacy.
Material and methods: PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect, CENTRAL, and Google Scholar were searched for studies comparing bleeding rates after ESD with and without local hemostatic agents.
Results: Eleven studies were included. The studies used polyglycolic acid (PGA) sheets and fibrin glue, fibrin glue, oxidized regenerated cellulose, polysaccharide hemostatic powder, or polyethylene oxide adhesive. Meta-analysis revealed a statistically significant reduction in the risk of delayed bleeding with the use of PGA sheets & fibrin glue (six studies; RR: 0.35 95% CI: 0.20, 0.63 p = 0.0005). However, meta-analysis of two studies showed no difference in the risk of bleeding based on the use of fibrin glue (RR: 0.44 95% CI: 0.03, 7.17 p = 0.56). Scarce data were available for the remaining hemostatic agents.
Conclusion: A large number of different hemostatic agents have been used to reduce the risk of bleeding after ESD for gastric cancer. Observational studies indicate that the use of PGA with fibrin glue could reduce the risk of bleeding after ESD. However, evidence for other agents was too scarce to derive conclusions.
Keywords: Gastric cancer; bleeding; endoscopy; fibrin; hemostasis.