Continuous Anticoagulation and Cold Snare Polypectomy Versus Heparin Bridging and Hot Snare Polypectomy in Patients on Anticoagulants With Subcentimeter Polyps: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Management of anticoagulants for patients undergoing polypectomy is still controversial. Cold snare polypectomy (CSP) is reported to cause less bleeding than hot snare polypectomy (HSP).

OBJECTIVE: To compare outcomes between continuous administration of anticoagulants (CA) with CSP (CA+CSP) and periprocedural heparin bridging (HB) with HSP (HB+HSP) for subcentimeter colorectal polyps.

DESIGN: Multicenter, parallel, noninferiority randomized controlled trial. (University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry: UMIN000019355).

SETTING: 30 Japanese institutions.

PATIENTS: Patients receiving anticoagulant therapy (warfarin or direct oral anticoagulants) who had at least 1 nonpedunculated subcentimeter colorectal polyp.

INTERVENTION: Patients were randomly assigned to undergo HB+HSP or CA+CSP and followed up 28 days after polypectomy.

MEASUREMENTS: The primary end point was incidence of polypectomy-related major bleeding (based on the incidence of poorly controlled intraprocedural bleeding or postpolypectomy bleeding requiring endoscopic hemostasis). The prespecified inferiority margin was -5% (CA+CSP vs. HB+HSP).

RESULTS: A total of 184 patients were enrolled: 90 in the HB+HSP group, 92 in the CA+CSP group, and 2 who declined to participate after enrollment. The incidence of polypectomy-related major bleeding in the HB+HSP and CA+CSP groups was 12.0% (95% CI, 5.0% to 19.1%) and 4.7% (CI, 0.2% to 9.2%), respectively. The intergroup difference for the primary end point was +7.3% (CI, -1.0% to 15.7%), with a 0.4% lower limit of 2-sided 90% CI, demonstrating the noninferiority of CA+CSP. The mean procedure time for each polyp and the hospitalization period were longer in the HB+HSP than in the CA+CSP group.

LIMITATION: An open-label trial assessing 2 factors (anticoagulation approach and polypectomy procedure type) simultaneously.

CONCLUSION: Patients having CA+CSP for subcentimeter colorectal polyps who were receiving oral anticoagulants did not have an increased incidence of polypectomy-related major bleeding, and procedure time and hospitalization were shorter than in those having HB+HSP.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Japanese Gastroenterological Association.