Gastric peroral endoscopic myotomy in refractory gastroparesis: long-term outcomes and predictive score to improve patient selection

Background and Aims: Limited data exist concerning the long-term efficiency of gastric peroral endoscopic my-otomy (G-POEM) as a treatment of refractory gastroparesis. This study evaluated the 3-year results of G-POEM in patients with refractory gastroparesis. Methods: This was a prospective multicenter study of all G-POEM operations performed in 2 expert French cen-ters for 46 patients with refractory gastroparesis with at least 3 years of follow-up. Results: Clinical success was 65.2% at 36 months. There was significant improvement in symptom severity. Me-dian Gastroparesis Cardinal Symptom Index decreased from 3.33 to 1.80 (P < .0001), with improvement in all subscales. We created a predictive score concerning G-POEM success (G-POEM predictive score) to which points were assigned as follows: nausea subscale <2: predictive of success, 1 point; satiety subscale >4: predictive of suc-cess, 1 point; bloating subscale >3.5: predictive of success, 1 point; percentage of gastric retention at 4 hours on scintigraphy >50%: 1 point. A threshold of 2 was identified by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis with an area under the curve of .825 that predicted clinical success with a sensitivity of 93.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], .77-.99), specificity of 56.3% (95% CI, .33-.77), positive predictive value of 80% (95% CI, .67-.93), negative predictive value of 81.8% (95% CI, .59-1.00), and accuracy of 80.4% (95% CI, .69-.92). Patients with a score >2 were significantly more likely to be responders at 3 years than were patients with a score <2 (80% and 18%, respectively; P Z .0004). Conclusions: The clinical success of G-POEM for refractory gastroparesis was 65.2% at 36 months. Our predictive score offers an easy tool that needs to be confirmed in other studies. (Gastrointest Endosc 2022;96:500-8.)

Automated summary

This study evaluated the 3-year efficiency of G-POEM as a treatment for refractory gastroparesis, and found that the clinical success rate was 65.2% at 36 months. There was significant improvement in symptom severity. The study also introduced a predictive score for G-POEM success, which can help predict the clinical success rate of the procedure.