The Practice of Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory During COVID-19 Pandemic: Position Statements of the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA-GML-COVID-19 Position Statements)

Siah, Kewin T H; Rahman, M Masudur; Ong, Andrew M L; Soh, Alex Y S; Lee, Yeong Yeh; Xiao, Yinglian; Sachdeva, Sanjeev; Jung, Kee Wook; Wang, Yen-Po; Oshima, Tadayuki; Patcharatrakul, Tanisa; Tseng, Ping-Huei; Goyal, Omesh; Pang, Junxiong; Lai, Christopher K C; Park, Jung Ho; Mahadeva, Sanjiv; Cho, Yu Kyung; Wu, Justin C Y; Ghoshal, Uday C; Miwa, Hiroto

J Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2020 Jul;26(3):299-310. 10.5056/jnm20107.

The Practice of Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory During COVID-19 Pandemic: Position Statements of the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA-GML-COVID-19 Position Statements)

Affiliations

¹Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, The National University of Singapore, Singapore
²Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore
³Department of Gastroenterology, Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
⁴Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
⁵Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
⁶School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
⁷St George and Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Kogarah, NSW, Australia
⁸Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
⁹Department of Gastroenterology, GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India
¹⁰Department of Gastroenterology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
¹¹Endoscopy center for Diagnosis of Treatment, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
¹²Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan
¹³Center of Excellence in Neurogastroenterology and Motility, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
¹⁴Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society, Bangkok, Thailand
¹⁵Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
¹⁶Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
¹⁷Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, NUS, Singapore
¹⁸Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
¹⁹Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
²⁰Department of Medicine, University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
²¹Department of Internal Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
²²Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
²³Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute Medical Science, Lucknow, India

KMID: 2503998
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5056/jnm20107

Abstract

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, practices of gastrointestinal procedures within the digestive tract require special precautions due to the risk of contraction of severe acute respiratoy syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Many procedures in the gastrointestinal motility laboratory may be considered moderate to high-risk for viral transmission. Healthcare staff working in gastrointestinal motility laboratories are frequently exposed to splashes, air droplets, mucus, or saliva during the procedures. Moreover, some are aerosol-generating and thus have a high risk of viral transmission. There are multiple guidelines on the practices of gastrointestinal endoscopy during this pandemic. However, such guidelines are still lacking and urgently needed for the practice of gastrointestinal motility laboratories. Hence, the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association had organized a group of gastrointestinal motility experts and infectious disease specialists to produce a position statement paper based-on current available evidence and consensus opinion with aims to provide a clear guidance on the practices of gastrointestinal motility laboratories during the COVID-19 pandemic. This guideline covers a wide range of topics on gastrointestinal motility activities from scheduling a motility test, the precautions at different steps of the procedure to disinfection for the safety and well-being of the patients and the healthcare workers. These practices may vary in different countries depending on the stages of the pandemic, local or institutional policy, and the availability of healthcare resources. This guideline is useful when the transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 is high. It may change rapidly depending on the situation of the epidemic and when new evidence becomes available.

Keyword

COVID-19; Esophageal motility disorders; Gastrointestinal diseases; Gastrointestinal motility; Infection control

The Practice of Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory During COVID-19 Pandemic: Position Statements of the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA-GML-COVID-19 Position Statements)

Abstract

Keyword

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