Conventional white-light endoscopy (WLE) is hampered by insufficient contrast when attempting to identify deep vessels and active bleeding sites; visibility drops further when blood pools or spurts obscure the field, resulting in significantly lower hemostatic efficiency. Red dichromatic imaging (RDI), a novel image-enhanced endoscopic modality, has recently been shown to improve the visualization of deep-lying vessels and bleeding points, shorten hemostasis time and potentially increase overall procedural efficiency.
Although retrospective series have suggested that RDI may facilitate intra-operative bleeding control and better delineation of the submucosal plane during endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), high-level evidence from multicenter, randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) is lacking. No study has yet demonstrated superiority over WLE with respect to critical endpoints such as en-bloc resection rate, procedure time, complication rate and operator mental workload.
The investigators therefore designed a multicenter RCT to systematically compare the efficacy and safety of full-procedural RDI with conventional WLE during ESD.
The primary outcome parameter is the mean resection speed (mm²/min) achieved with RDI versus conventional white-light endoscopy during ESD.
The secondary outcome parameters are: complete resection (R0) rate, en-bloc resection rate, resection margin, number of intra-procedural bleeding episodes, intra-procedural blood loss, intra-procedural hemostasis time, other intra-procedural adverse events, and post-procedural adverse events.