Together with Consulting Editor Dr. Charles Lightdale, Dr. Jacques Van Dam has put together the first ever monograph that tackles the challenges of infection prevention by endoscopists and interventional endoscopists. Dr. Van Dam has selected authors who have learned valuable lessons in hospitals where antibiotic-resistant infections occurred as well as regulating bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who are trying to both resolve what happened and create, as much as possible, an evidenced-based response in an effort to protect the public. Articles are specifically devoted to the following topics: Introduction to Transmission of Infection: Potential Agents Transmitted by Endoscopy; Genetic Mutation and Natural Selection of Resistant Bacteria: How did We Get Here; Nosocomial Infections: A History of Hospital-Acquired Infections; Endoscope as Vector for Transmission Methods for Endoscope Reprocessing; Novel Algorithms for Reprocessing, Drying and Storing; Quality Systems Approach for Endoscope Reprocessing: You Don't Know What you Don't Know; Role of the FDA: From Device Regulation to Crisis Management; Hospital Outbreaks; Patient as Vector and Victim; Society Guidelines: Where is the Consensus; New-Age Antibiotics; Role of the CDC: From Hospital Outbreak to Crisis Management. Readers will come away with latest information they need to prevent infections in their endoscopy suites and hospitals.

Dr. Van Dam is one of key leaders in the field of diagnostic endoscopy, and he has enlisted authors who are top experts in their fields to submit state-of-the-art clinical reviews on endoscopy and biliary tract disease. Articles are devoted to infections, choledoscopy, common bile duct stones, benign and malignant bile duct strictures, motility disorders, and EUS access and drainage of the common bile duct. Attention is also given to patients with bile duct injury, congenital anomalies, and to liver transplant patients. Readers will come away with a?full overview of endoscopy and the patient with biliary tract disease.

Dr. Van Dam is an internationally recognized leader in gastroenterology and has been a leader in advances in intervedntional endoscopy. He brings this expertise to the topic of management of benign and malignant pancreatic disease and has selected top experts in the field to provide state-of-the-art clinical information to gastroenterologists. The modern management treatise of each article addresses current diagnostics as well as medical management. Seven articles are devoted to pancreatic cancer and span medical management, surgial mangament, radiologic imaging, endoscopic diagnosis, palliation, and screening. Other important topics addressed are pancreatic transplantation, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, acute and chronic pancreatitis, and autoimmune pancreatitis.

As the debate continues about who should perform CT Colonography, radiologists or endoscopists, this issue marks the first time that the debate is addressed in great detail by BOTH endoscopists AND radiologists. As a result, this issue will be of great interest to both groups. Both offer their point of view on this screening method in great detail. Articles include: Only Radiologists Should Read CT Colonography; Gastroenterologists Should Read CT Colonography; Small and Medium Sized Polyps Noted at CT Colonography Need Not Be Reported; Small and Medium Sized Polyps Noted at CT Colonography Should Be Reported; Role of CTC in a Colorectal Cancer Screening Program; and Establishing a CT Colonography Service, to name a few.

Featuring 26 chapters by doctors and other researchers, this handbook reviews the basic information and offers specific instructions concerning: informed consent, conscious sedation and monitoring, antibiotic prophylaxis, endoscopic electrosurgery, the benign esophagus, esophageal manometry, pH test

Top expert Dr. Jacques Van Dam has compiled the most current clinical reviews on lumen-apposing stents, an important emerging field in interventional endoscopy that can substitute for more invasive surgeries. Authors have addressed the following topics in this issue: Fluid collections and pseudocysts as a complication of acute pancreatitis; Surgical management of pancreatic pseudocysts; Evolution of EUS-guided cyst gastrostomy; EUS-guided drainage of pancreatic fluid collections; EUS-guided biliary drainage as an alternative to ERCP; EUS-guided gallbladder drainage; Novel uses of LAMS; Lumen-apposing stents: Which one and why; Safety of LAMS; Endoscopic closure of fistuli; and How the experts do it: Step-by-step guide. Readers will come away with the knowledge they need to incorporate the use of LAMs in their clinical repertoire.