Assessment and Techniques for Endoscopic Closure

Endoscopic closure is an essential technique to perform safe advanced endoscopy. Without appropriate closure of a defect, patients can experience spillage of fecal contents into the peritoneal cavity resulting in abdominal sepsis. The essential components to performing endoscopic closure are assessing the defect appropriately and choosing the correct closure technique. Assessing the defect involves five separate elements: timing, size, depth, shape, blood flow, and location in the colon or rectum. Understanding how each of these elements contributes toward a successful closure allows an endoscopist to choose the proper technique for closure. There have been many types of closure techniques described in the literature but the most common are through the scope clips, over the scope clips, and endoscopic suturing. There are advantages and disadvantages of each of these closure techniques. In this manuscript, we will discuss these common techniques as well as some additional techniques and the situations where they can be employed.