In April the Aquilant Endoscopy team were asked to support Dr Edward Despott for a one-of-a-kind Double-Balloon Enteroscopy case at the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London.

Providing a state-of-the-art Fujifilm Eluxeo system and Double-Balloon Enteroscope (DBE) to Great Ormond Street so that a young patient with the very rare Blue Rubber Bleb Naevus Syndrome could be treated. Although launched in 2007 the innovative Fujifilm DBE system is still universally recognised as the gold standard in small bowel deep enteroscopy.

Dr Edward Despott, (Clinical lead at the Royal Free Hospital) an expert in Double-Balloon Enteroscopy was asked to collaborate with the team at Great Ormond Street to perform the advanced procedure, which lasted nearly five hours. This is what he had to say:

“Today was a great day of cross-London collaborative working, which allowed us to treat a 6-year-old girl who is transfusion dependent secondary to the exceedingly rare Blue Rubber Bleb Naevus Syndrome, on whom we did the first ever double-balloon enteroscopy to be performed at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children.

At pan-Enteroscopy with colonoscopy, we managed to treat 66 culprit vascular malformations, scattered throughout the whole of the GI tract. Thank you to our super team of nurses and Dr Stavroula Pelitari from the Royal Free Hospital and to Aquilant Ltd for providing equipment and on-site support, and to Dr Fevronia Kiparissi (from GOSH) for facilitating the successful effort- it is very much appreciated!”

In conjunction with our partners 3-D Matrix, we were pleased to host a symposium and dinner at Endoport last month. This evening event, led by Professor Bhandari, provided the opportunity for clinicians across the country to get together to discuss and share their own experiences with Purastat. Recent clinical data was also shared, including the latest data from the prospective observational Purastat study (POPS).

Purastat is becoming an increasingly used haemostat for upper and lower GI oozing bleeds, many centers are finding it more and more useful for treating bleeds post ERCP, post polypectomy, with some centers beginning to use it for Radiation Proctitis. Nursing teams in North Lincolnshire, South Lincolnshire and Redditch have been undergoing training days in the last month, with hands on support both in and out of theatre, to understand how best to use Purastat.

Preparation, application and appropriate bleeds are all areas that have been focused on during the training; whilst also discussing its use in Radiation Proctitis as not just a haemostat, but also a therapeutic tool in healing the tissue. Recent and ongoing research is beginning to demonstrate that a 12-week intervention, featuring 4 applications at the bleed sites, will show significant reduction in bleeds in radiation proctitis patients.

This topic was also discussed with Dr Ghangro and his team of delegates at the recent Training the Colonoscopy Trainers (TCT) course. Following the presentation many great points were raised comparing commonly used methods for treating Radiation Proctitis and Purastat. Delayed risk of further bleeding and healing of the tissue, alongside the easy application and scope visibility once applied are just some of the many benefits to using Purastat for Radiation Proctitis bleeds.