A New Paradigm Shift in Gastroparesis Management

Gastroparesis, once regarded as a rare disease, is difficult to diagnose and challenging to treat; there were many breakthrough advances in the 2010s, shifting the paradigm of the understanding of this complex entity and its management. Similar to diabetes, its increasing prevalence reflects increased accessibility to diagnostic modalities and suggests that gastroparesis was underacknowledged in the past. Major developments in the three main aspects of the disease include the discovery of smooth muscle cells, interstitial cells of Cajal, PDGFRα+ cells syncytium, rather than interstitial cells of Cajal alone, as the main gastric pacemaker unit; the development of validated point-of-care diagnostic modalities such as a wireless motility capsule, the carbon 13-labeled breath test, and impedance planimetry; and the introduction of novel minimally invasive therapeutic options such as newer pharmacologic agents and gastric peroral endoscopic pyloromyotomy. All aspects of these advances will be discussed further in this review.