The anchor provided secure tissue grasping and did not pull out during retraction.

However, we were unable to deploy the Selleckchem ALK inhibitor anchor with the endoscope in retroflexion in 4 patients with tumors in the fundus and along the lesser curvature. For these patients, we used the loop-over-loop technique, which was successful in 3 of the 4 patients. Overall, the RLUB technique was successful in 13 of 16 patients. A drawback of treatment by ligation rather than resection is the lack of a specimen for surgical pathology. EUS-guided tissue sampling by FNA or trucut is limited by small sample size that may be insufficient for immunohistochemistry and calculation of the mitotic index.3, 4 and 18 Our previous experience with EUS-guided FNA of GISTs19 agrees with that of Hoda et al3 who found that FNA may be nondiagnostic in nearly 40% of patients. We performed endoscopic “unroofing” by needle-knife incision to expose the underlying tumor for direct endoscopic forceps biopsy. Lee et al15 reported a 94% yield find more for diagnosis and assessment of risk for malignancy by using the unroofing technique in subepithelial tumors originating in the muscularis propria on EUS. Our technique differs from that of Lee et al15 in that we performed loop ligation before unroofing, which

we hypothesized should reduce the risk of procedural bleeding and perforation.20 The RLUB approach allowed a definitive diagnosis by immunohistochemistry and categorized all patients with GISTs as low risk based on a mitotic number less than 5 per 50 high-power field.13 and 14 Unroofing after ligation may promote spontaneous enucleation of the stromal tumor. We made 2 incisions in a “cross” formation to maximize unroofing. We then placed an additional loop

by using the loop-over-loop technique to reinforce both tumor ischemia and enucleation. A mean of 1.3 sessions were required to achieve complete ID-8 GIST ablation. This contrasted with our previous experience of a mean of 1.8 sessions by using the loop-and-let-go technique without unroofing for large GISTs.12 The RLUB technique failed in 3 patients with tumors that could not be fully captured in the loop. Various factors may contribute to failure including tumor size, morphology, and location, as well as device limitations. All failures were in tumors larger than 3.5 cm. Tangential access at locations such as the lesser curvature compromised our ability to evert the tumor-containing wall into an en face position for loop capture. Use of a side-viewing endoscope may address this difficulty. We found loop “floppiness” with a tendency to fold over during closure to be a device limitation. Delayed bleeding occurred in 2 patients. Endoscopy showed the loops had loosened and bleeding to be from the surface of the partially ligated tumor. Hemostasis was achieved with repeat looping.