Introduction: Barrett's oesophagus (BO) affects approximately 2% of people in the western world. It increases the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma 30 times compared to the general population, thus exhibiting the need for regular surveillance. Its aim is to detect presence of oesophageal cancer at earlier stages and in turn to improve prognosis.
The Seattle Protocol is the optimal method for detecting early cancers in patients with high-grade dysplasia.
Aim: To assess whether Seattle Protocol was adhered to and whether implementing a specialist service for Barrett’s surveillance (consisting of 4 dedicated team members) increased the compliance.
Methods: 49 patients who were scheduled for BO surveillance between May 2018 and September 2018 were included in the audit. After the intervention was implemented, 50 patients who were scheduled for BO surveillance between October 2018 and February 2019 were included in the re-audit.
Results: 50% of endoscopies followed the Seattle Protocol before the implementation of the intervention with this figure being 68% afterwards. This data suggests an improvement with the intervention in place. Moreover, although there was no correlation between the duration of the procedure and the length of BO, there was a positive trend between the duration of procedure and compliance with Seattle Protocol.
Conclusion: The implementation of a specialist service for Barrett’s oesophagus surveillance might increase the adherence to Seattle Protocol.
