ReviewSurgery research and practice2021
Does Premedication with Mucolytic Agents Improve Mucosal Visualization during Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Surgery research and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- ACG Clinical Guideline: Diagnosis and Management of Gastric Premalignant Conditions.The American journal of gastroenterology · 2025Guideline
- AGA Clinical Practice Update on the Diagnosis and Management of Atrophic Gastritis: Expert Review.Gastroenterology · 2021Guideline
- The Effect of Using Premedication of Simethicone/Pronase With or Without Postural Change on Visualization of the Mucosa Before Endoscopy: A Prospective, Double Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial.Clinical and translational gastroenterology · 2024Trial
- Screening strategies for the early detection of non-cardia gastric cancer in low- to moderate-prevalence regions: Asia-Pacific gastroesophageal cancer congress consensus 2026.Gastric cancer : official journal of the International Gastric Cancer Association and the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association · 2026Review
- Management of Gastric Precancerous Lesions and Early Cancer: Practice-Oriented Answers to Clinical Questions.Cancers · 2026Review
- Frequency and characteristics of synchronous gastric cancers: Need for improved awareness and better detection.World journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Review
- How to improve the quality of upper gastrointestinal diagnostic endoscopy?Clinical endoscopy · 2025Review
- Research and experiments of a new premedication for improving mucosal visibility during esophagogastroduodenoscopy.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Summary of gastroscopy quality indicators applicable in clinical practice.Przeglad gastroenterologiczny · 2025Review
- International Validation of a Novel PEACE Scale to Improve the Quality of Upper Gastrointestinal Mucosal Inspection During Endoscopy.Clinical and translational gastroenterology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionGastric Cancer (GC) is the fourth most common malignancy worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality for both sexes. The gold standard for diagnosing GC is oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD). Excess mucus on the gastric mucosa impairs the detection of early GC.
aimTo synthesize available evidence of the effect of premedication with a mucolytic agent among adults undergoing elective nontherapeutic OGD, compared to placebo or other mucolytic agents, on mucosal visibility during OGD.
methodsA systematic review was conducted. PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane central register of controlled trials (CENTRAL), and Web of Science were searched for relevant studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed to determine the mean difference in total mucosal visibility score (TMVS) between the pooled mucolytic agents and control. Subgroup analyses were performed to determine the mean TMVS difference for simethicone versus control and the impact of different timings and doses of mucolytic premedication.
results13 studies, involving 11,086 patients, including 6178 females (55.7%), with a mean age of 53.4 were identified and 6 of these were brought forward to meta-analysis. This revealed a mean difference of -2.69 (95% CI -3.5, -1.88) in total mucosal visibility scores (TMVS) between the pooled mucolytic agents and control. For simethicone, the mean difference was -2.68 (95% CI -4.94, -0.43). A simethicone dose of 133 mg was most effective with a mean difference of -4.22 (95% CI -5.11, -3.33). Assessing timing of administration across all mucolytic agents revealed a mean difference for the >20 minutes group of -3.68 (95% CI -4.77, -2.59). No adverse events were reported in any included trials.
conclusionsRegular use of premedication with mucolytic agents prior to routine OGD is associated with improved TMVS with no reported adverse events.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.