Ethical issues in endoscopy: patient satisfaction, safety in elderly patients, palliation, and relations with industry

Introduction

The explosive development of gastroenterology and gastrointestinal endoscopy over the past few years, with clinical trials of powerful new drugs and top-quality endoscopes and accessories, has led to a huge increase in the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of modern gastroenterology. At the same time the percentage of elderly people in Europe has increased, patients attending gastrointestinal endoscopy units are expecting to undergo painless endoscopy procedures, and palliative endoscopic therapy is increasingly being used for patients with lethal gastrointestinal diseases. This new environment presents a number of ethical issues and necessitates an updated consensus applicable in the clinical practice of gastroenterology.

The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and the Organisation Mondiale d’Endoscopie Digestive (OMED), in collaboration with the United European Gastroenterology Federation (UEGF), organized the Second European Symposium on Ethics in Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy on the island of Kos, Greece, in July 2006. Twenty-three expert gastroenterologists, surgeons, and scientists from the biomedical industry participated in four workshops, aiming to formulate a consensus statement after presentation of the topics, discussion, and voting in a plenary session. We are happy to present these consensus reports here in Endoscopy and hope that they will help our colleagues in their clinical practice.

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