Endoscopic management of acute sigmoid volvulus in high risk surgical elderly patients: a randomized controlled trial

Most patients with sigmoid volvulus are of old age with multiple comorbidities. So, the risk of surgery for those elderly patients is usually associated with increased rates of morbidity and mortality. Early intervention is required for managing sigmoid volvulus to avoid its serious complications; therefore, early endoscopic untwist of sigmoid colon can be performed followed by endoscopic fixation of sigmoid colon under sedation in this category of the patients to avoid development of high risk surgical complications following surgical fixation of sigmoid colon or sigmoidectomy after initial simple loop colostomy procedure to relieve obstruction.

This prospective randomized controlled clinical trial included all patients who developed acute sigmoid volvulus and were referred to the Zagazig University Hospital Emergency Department between December 2020 and August 2022. The study was prospectively approved by Zagazig University Faculty of Medicine Institutional Review Board (Approval Number: 9989/23-10-2022) and was retrospectively submitted in http://clinicaltrials.gov in November 2022 ( http://clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT05620446). Included eligible patients were simply randomized at a 1:1 ratio to "Endoscopic Group (EG)" or "Surgical Group (SG)" via drawing of sealed envelopes containing computer-generated random numbers prepared by a third party before start of intervention.

Sample size included 18 patients divided into 2 equal groups. (1) Endoscopic group included 9 patients who were subjected to endoscopic untwist of sigmoid colon followed by endoscopic fixation of sigmoid colon under sedation; (2) Surgical group included 9 patients who were subjected to surgical fixation of sigmoid colon or sigmoidectomy after initial simple loop colostomy under general anesthesia. In comparison between both groups, there were statistically significant differences regarding length of hospital stay and procedure time. Unfortunately, there were no statistically significant differences regarding postoperative complications and co-morbidities. Eight patients in the endoscopy group demonstrated excellent quality of life, and one demonstrated good quality of life; unlike the surgical group, there were 3 patients with excellent quality of life, 5 patients with good quality of life, and 1 patient with poor quality of life. So there was statistically significant difference regarding quality of life between both groups. During the 9-month follow-up period, both groups demonstrated no cases of recurrence post-fixation.

Endoscopic management of acute sigmoid volvulus is effective and safe in elderly high risk surgical patients (either in managing the intestinal obstruction caused by volvulus or in definitive treatment of volvulus).