Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers recently conducted the first comprehensive study on healthcare utilization and readmission among U.S. patients with acute pancreatitis who use opioids and report on several factors that predicted 30-day readmission in this population.

Daniel J. Stein, MD, MPH, in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Joseph D. Feuerstein, MD, and a colleague recently reviewed for hospitalists the first-line diagnostic and treatment options when acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding is suspected.

Marvin Ryou, MD, director of endoscopic innovation, and Christopher C. Thompson, MD, MSc, director of endoscopy, recently conducted the first study of which patients are most likely to respond to direct endoscopic necrosectomy with lumen-apposing metal stent (LAMS) for pancreatic walled-off necrosis.

Idiopathic acute pancreatitis (IAP) is an emerging indication for empiric inpatient cholecystectomy. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recently found an extremely low rate of adoption and also report disparities in uptake by demographics and geography.

Magnetic sphincter augmentation using the LINX® Reflux Management System is an alternative to acid suppression therapy with proton pump inhibitors or traditional surgical treatment. Gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeons Thomas C. Tsai, MD, MPH, and David Spector, MD, discuss bringing this procedure to the Brigham.

Working with scientists at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have developed a much simpler alternative to GI manometers called quipu-inspired, liquid metal–enabled pressure transducers (QUILT).

The only head-to-head trial that compared biologics for treating ulcerative colitis (UC) found superiority of vedolizumab to adalimumab for clinical remission. Now, a retrospective study shows that biologic-naïve adults with UC stay on vedolizumab longer than either of the two tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) inhibitors.