For those of you who did not make it to the Jan GI journal club, you missed a great conference! We reviewed the recent NEJM paper on transfusion thresholds and GI bleeding as presented by Lisa Jones. At the end of the evening, we had agreed that the data were compelling to support using a transfusion threshold of 7 rather than 9 and in my own clinical practice, I have been encouraging the fellows and residents at the VA to consider these thresholds (in the absence of clinical symptoms indicating a need for transfusion).

If you missed the article, you can find the link using PMID 23281973.

We’re looking forward to another great discussion on Feb 26th.

Julius Wilder will present the hepatology paper by Delgado et al entitled: Efficacy and Safety of Anticoagulaiton on Patients with Cirrhosis and Portal Vein Thrombosis as found in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Vol 10: 776-783. 2012). The PMID is 22289875, but you may need to access it through Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology directly using an AGA login.

Tilak Shah will present the advanced therapeutics paper by Messer et al entitled:  Prospective, randomized, single-center trial comparing double-balloon enteroscopy and spiral enteroscopy in patients with suspected small-bowel disorders in GIE. Vol 77: 241. 2013. PMID 23043851.

Vaishali Patel will present the “hot topic” on clipping after large polypectomy with a paper from Doug Rex’s group entitled: Prohylactic clip closure reduced the risk of delayed post-polypectomy hemorrhage: experience in 277 clipped large sessile or flat colorectal lesions and 247 control lesions as found in GIE 77: 401. 2013. PMID 23317580.

Thank you and see you Tuesday.