Digestive Disease Week 2025

Digestive Disease Week 2025, the largest international gastrointestinal meeting, was held in San Diego from May 3rd to 6th and boasted over 13,000 attendees. McGovern Medical School had a fantastic presence at the meeting with an impressive number of posters, videos, and podium presentations. There were presentations from first-year medical students to faculty representing multiple divisions and groups. We had presentations from thoracic surgery, MIS/bariatrics, colorectal surgery, and basic science, and a large presence from gastroenterology.

Nirav C. Thosani, MD, MHA, Professor, and Atilla Ertan, MD, Endowed Chair in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition was even featured in the Digestive Disease Week News discussing new technology in cholangiocarcinoma care.

As usual, Farzaneh Banki, MD, Professor in the Department of Surgery, had an impressive cohort of medical students under her mentorship in attendance. Mack Anderson and Austin Zhu – both MS1 students – were the only medical student presenters in their plenary video session. They held their own in a session filled with Faculty and Fellows and represented UTHealth Houston well.

The full list of presentations at the conference can be found below. Congratulations to all. (UTHealth Authors in Bold):

Laparoscopic Diaphragmatic Plication and Fundopexy for the Treatment of Left Diaphragmatic Paralysis and Intra-Abdominal Gastric Volvulus
Mack Anderton, Jared McDonald, Farzaneh Banki

Laparoscopic Heller Myotomy and Partial Epiphrenic Diverticulectomy Intraoperative Challenges and Clinical Outcomes
Austin Zhu, Peijun Zhao, Farzaneh Banki

Perioperative Anticoagulation in Primary Laparoscopic Hiatal Hernia
Nikhil Erabelli, Ethan Bui, Connor Fritz, Raymar Turangan, Sylvestre Pineau, Clarissa Hoffman, Bashar Alramahi, Pavel Levin, Andre Miller, Farzaneh Banki

Takedown of Fundoplication and Conversion to Fundoplication vs Fundopexy in Reoperative Laparoscopic Antireflux Surgery
Karsten Fields, Neel Aligave, Connor Fritz, Clarissa Hoffman, Shalin Shah, Raymar Turangan, Sylvestre Pineau, Farzaneh Banki

Profibrogenic Gremlin1 Is Ubiquitously Elevated In Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Across Gastrointestinal And Non-Gastrointestinal Cancers
Kevin Shi, Danqing Ren, Suhair Al Salihi, Yanna Cao, and Tien C. Ko

Incidence and Outcomes of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Device and ECMO Circulatory Support Varies Depending on Etiology of Cardiogenic Shock
Nina Quirk, Bindu Akkanti, Nirav Thosani

Adverse Events of Pancreatitis Associated With Various GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: Analysis Per US FDA Adverse Reporting System
Akanksha Togra, Indraneel Deshmukh, Jesus Guzman, Alejandro Robles, Nirav Thosani

Assessment of Gastroparesis and Related Adverse Events Associated With GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Reported in the US FDA Adverse Event Reporting System
Akanksha Togra, Indraneel Deshmukh, Jesus Guzman, Alejandro Robles, Nirav Thosani

Advancing Diagnostic Accuracy: EUS-Confocal Endomicroscopy for Pancreatic Cysts in the Era of Cyst Fluid Glucose Analysis and Current Standards of Care
Fred Karaisz, Tassiana Maloof, Ahmed Ragab Mohamed Abdelbaki, Megan E. Fry, Wei Chen, Stacey Culp, Stefano Francesco Crinò, Jahnvi Dhar, Naveen Kumar, Sunil Dacha, Jayanta Samanta, Antonio Facciorusso, Anand Kumar, Sumant Inamdar, Nirav Thosani, Ali Mir Ahmed, Jahangeer Basha, Shubhra Mishra, Mazen Elatrache, Veeral M. Oza, Ajaypal Singh, Somashekar G. Krishna

First-in-Human Case Series of Use of Novel Multiple Biliary Stent Delivery System
Jennifer Ma, Vikesh Singh, Meir Mizrahi, Stanislav Bezobchuk, Dang Nguyen, Mairin Joseph-Talreja, Isaac Raijman, Sammy Ho, Mouen A. Khashab, Nirav Thosani

Environmental Impact and Processing Cost of Disposable Versus Reusable Duodenoscopes: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment in a Community Hospital Setting
Shahrooz Rashtak, Stephanie Cazaubon, Lola Brooks, Arthur Shumate, Tomas DaVee, Vaibhav Wadhwa, Kumar Pallav, Sruthi Kapliyil Subramanian, Mairin Joseph-Talreja, Pritesh Ravindra Mutha, Nirav Thosani

Standardizing Preoperative Processes for Inpatient Endoscopy: A Lean Six Sigma Approach to Improving Efficiency and Reducing Variability
Stephanie Cazaubon, Amanda Enerson, Lola Brooks, Caleb Perry, LeeAnn Johnson, Sarah Shannon, Nikki Roux, Arthur Shumate, Asha Kuruvila, Nirav Thosani, Shahrooz Rashtak

Development and Validation of a Prediction Model to Determine the Probability of Choledocholithiasis After Cholecystectomy With Intraoperative Cholangiography
Faisal S. Ali, Jennifer Ma, Rachel Elizabeth Mortan, Areeba Khwaja, Tanvi Gupta, Indraneel Deshmukh, Vaibhav Wadhwa, Nirav Thosani

Adenoma and Sessile Serrated Lesion Detection Rates Among 45- to 49-Year-Old Patients Undergoing Screening Colonoscopy: Results From a Large Tertiary Healthcare Practice
Varun Vemulapalli, Cristina Natha, Madhav Desai, Bharat K Puchakayala, Nirav Thosani

Coil Embolization of High-Grade Bile Leaks Following Traumatic Injury: A Case Series
Devi Bavishi, Sruthi Kapliyil Subramanian, Wendy Rockne, Thaddeus Puzio, Tomas DaVee, Nirav Thosani

Worrisome Cumulative Risk of De Novo Barrett’s Esophagus Post Sleeve Gastrectomy With Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease May Warrant Screening: A Real-World Study From TriNetX
Mark M. Aloysius, Priyadarshini Loganathan, Hemant Goyal, Abhilash Perisetti, Savio John, Ganesh Aswath, Hafiz Muzaffar Akbar Khan, Kelita Singh, Idan Goren, Erik B. Wilson, Nirav Thosani

Gender Is a Strong Predictor for De Novo Barrett’s Esophagus Post Sleeve Gastrectomy With Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and May Warrant Screening in Males: A Real-World Study From TriNetX
Mark M. Aloysius, Priyadarshini Loganathan, Hemant Goyal, Ganesh Aswath, Savio John, Kelita Singh, Hafiz Muzaffar Akbar Khan, Abhilash Perisetti, Erik B. Wilson, Nirav Thosani

Gastric Volume Reduction by Robot-Assisted Endoscopic Transluminal Gastroplasty in an Ex-Vivo Experimental Porcine Stomach Model: A Novel Technique in Endobariatrics
Todd Wilson

Longitudinal Operative Feedback Tool for Colorectal Subspecialty Training
Jerry Xiao, Jeffrey Van Eps, Marianne Cusick

---