Postgraduate Teaching (PGT) 

Faecal incontinence
•    Pathophysiology and differential diagnosis of faecal incontinence
•    Manometric classification of anorectal disorders
•    Current tests of anorectal motor and sensory function
•    Therapeutic management: Conservative, pharmacological, behavioural and surgical modalities

Infectious colitis
•    Evaluation, differential diagnosis and management of patients with acute diarrhoea
•    Clostridium difficile: First-line management and recurrent infections
•    Faecal transplantation: Indications and modalities

Management of abdominal emergencies
•    Overview of potential causes of the acute abdomen (non-surgical and surgical)
•    Clinical assessment, laboratory and imaging diagnostic tools
•    Initial therapeutic management of the acute abdomen
•    Novel areas of development and innovations

Management of colorectal polyps and early colorectal cancer 
•    Screening strategies according to risk stratification
•    Endoscopic detection, characterisation and reporting
•    Therapeutic management: From endoscopy to surgery

Chronic diarrhoea
•    Differential diagnosis of chronic diarrhoea, including microscopic colitis, malabsorption, bile acid diarrhoea, etc.
•    Different tools for the diagnostic work-up
•    Therapeutic management

Colorectal cancer: Staging, surgery and adjuvant therapies
•    Staging and the multidisciplinary team meeting (including guidelines)
•    Evidence-based surgical management with curative intent, inclunding ERAS, etc.
•    Surgery for colorectal liver metastases
•    Neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies for colon and rectal cancer

Colorectal polyps
•    Classification and endoscopic characterisation
•    Management and surveillance for sporadic polyps
•    Familial syndromes: Presentation and management

IBS
•    Diagnosis of IBS: What is the optimal work-up?
•    Medical treatment options, including pharmacological management, for IBS according to the clinical presentation (IBS-C, IBS-D)
•    Dietary management of IBS
•    Psychosocial management
•    IBS overlap syndromes

Lower GI bleeding
•    Clinical assessment, investigation and therapy for acute lower GI bleeding
•    Diagnosis and management of small and large bowel ischaemia

Advanced diagnostic endoscopy
•    Techniques for enhancing endoscopic vision: Chromo-endoscopy, high definition, NBI, FICE and endo-microscopy
•    Intraductal exploration with cholangioscopy
•    Enhancing EUS: Elastography, sonoview and endo-microscopy

Malignant biliary obstruction
•    Differential diagnosis of biliary strictures: Clinical assessment, laboratory tests, imaging techniques and tissue acquisition
•    The role of endoscopy and surgery in the management of malignant biliary strictures

Video Case Sessions

Endoscopic management of pancreatobiliary diseases
•    Endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of hilar and distal biliary strictures, including diagnosis with cholangioscopy and treatment with stenting
•    Endoscopic management of strictures and stones in patients with chronic pancreatitis
•    Endoscopic diagnosis of pancreatic cysts: EUS for the diagnosis of pancreatic cystic lesions, differential diagnosis, tools to enhance diagnosis

Endoscopic treatment of mid and lower gut diseases (excluding polyps)
•    Diagnostic and therapeutic management for lower GI bleeding, including timing and modalities for endoscopic treatment
•    Diagnosis and therapeutic management in small bowel disease, including indications and modalities for deep enteroscopy, as well as management for suspected small bowel bleeding and polyp resection
•    Endoscopic management of patients with IBD: colon cancer surveillance, polyp and stricture management
•    Endoscopic management of GI strictures (oesophageal, duodenal and colon: dilation and stent insertion)

Advanced therapeutic endoscopic techniques
•    Difficult papilla and altered anatomy: Alternative approaches to ERCP
•    ERCP for difficult stones including cholangioscopy
•    Overview on EUS-guided therapeutic procedures

Video Case Sessions

Upper GI bleeding and endoscopic therapy of endoscopic and surgical complications
•    Overall and endoscopic management of patients with variceal bleeding
•    Overall and endoscopic management of patients with non-variceal bleeding
•    Haemostatic techniques in variceal and non-variceal bleeding
•    Endoscopic management of endoscopic complications (perforations) and surgical complications 

Endoscopic handling of colorectal polyps and treatment of pancreatic collections
•    Characterisation and resection techniques of colorectal polyps
•    EUS-guided drainage for pseudocysts and walled-off necrosis
•    Endoscopic necrosectomy techniques

Difficult to treat IBD
•    How to define treatment failure and refractory IBD
•    Infectious complications to consider
•    Therapeutic options in patients failing biological agents
•    The role of surgery in refractory cases

Early management of IBD
•    Differential diagnosis of the patient with chronic diarrhoea
•    Diagnostic work-up and use of laboratory tests, imaging and endoscopy.
•    Therapeutic management in early stages

Extraintestinal manifestations of IBD
•    Epidemiology of extra-intestinal manifestations of IBD (PSC, skin, joints)
•    Clinical manifestations and diagnostic strategy
•    Therapeutic considerations with relation to IBD

Therapy update in IBD (in addition for 2020 only)
•    Non-complicated ileal Crohn's disease: biologics or watchful waiting?
•    New options in acute severe ulcerative colitis
•    Perianal Crohn's disease
•    Most promising mechanisms

Cancer and IBD
•    Pathophysiology of link between chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis
•    Surveillance schemes in patient with IBD according to risk factors
•    How to manage findings: Surgery and endoscopy

Management of Crohn's disease
•    Medical treatment algorithms
•    Objective measures for treatment and the role of complete mucosal healing
•    Interdisciplinary approach for perianal fistula

Management of ulcerative colitis: The acute patient
•    The hospitalised patient with acute colitis: Differential diagnosis
•    Medical management of ulcerative colitis
•    Surgery: Timing, types, outcome determining factors

Assessment of liver function
•    When to assess liver function
•    What methods are available for liver function assessment
•    How to predict and prevent liver failure prior to major surgery

Diagnostic work-up of a liver nodule
•    Differential diagnosis of liver nodules in the non-cirrhotic and cirrhotic liver
•    Diagnostic management: Imaging modalities and when to obtain tissue
•    Therapeutic management: Surveillance or treatment (except HCC)

NAFLD and NASH
•    Epidemiological concerns regarding NAFLD/NASH
•    How to differentiate from alcohol-related liver disease?
•    Relationship with the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases
•    Risk stratification
•    Therapeutic management

Viral hepatitis
•    The changing epidemiology of viral hepatitis
•    Diagnostic modalities for viral hepatitis
•    Therapeutic management
•    Long-term complications
•    HCV elimination: strategies, micro-elimination and possible target groups

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
•    Diagnostic modalities and differential diagnosis
•    Staging and classifications
•    Treatment algorithms and the role of liver transplantation

Liver and pregnancy
•    Overview of specific liver diseases in pregnancy, according to birth term.
•    Other liver diseases diagnosed during pregnancy
•    Management of liver diseases, including when to terminate pregnancy

Metabolic and vascular disorders of the liver
•    Overview of metabolic disorders: Diagnosis and therapy
•    The place of genetic evaluation in diagnostic work up
•    Vascular disorders of the liver: Diagnostic work up
•    Management of vascular disorders: The role of anticoagulation, TIPS and liver transplantation

Benign causes of oesophageal dysphagia
•    Clinical presentation and differential diagnosis of dysphagia
•    Diagnostic modalities for determining diagnosis
•    Therapeutic management of benign oesophageal dysphagia (Eosinophilic oesophagitis, oe-sophageal motility disorders etc.)

Management of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD)
•    Concepts of GORD pathophysiology and diagnostic classification
•    Appropriate use of different modalities for GORD diagnosis (pH-metry, pH-impedance etc.)
•    Pharmacological therapy
•    Non-pharmacological therapy, including endoscopic procedures and surgery

Barrett’s oesophagus
•    Epidemiology, aetiology and the risk of cancer
•    Diagnosis and classification
•    Surveillance schemes according to risk
•    Chemoprevention
•    Endoscopic management

Non-cardiac chest pain
•    Differential diagnosis of oesophageal chest pain
•    How to investigate, including the use of reflux studies and manometry
•    Pharmacological therapy: PPI and beyond

Diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition
•    Definition and criteria of malnutrition
•    Tools for sarcopenia assessment
•    Identifying which patient is at risk
•    Artificial nutrition (enteral and parenteral): Indications and modalities of administration
•    Ethical considerations regarding artificial nutrition

Malabsorption
•    Mechanisms of nutrient absorption and pathophysiology of malabsorption
•    Clinical features and differential diagnosis of the underlying diseases
•    Therapeutic management

Nutrition in GI diseases
•    Nutrition in IBD
•    Nutrition and NASH
•    Nutrition in patients with advanced liver disease, including pre- and post-transplantation, with a focus on sarcopenia / frailty
•    Nutrition in patients with gastrointestinal cancer, including perioperative nutrition

Management of acute pancreatitis
•    How to stage severity in acute pancreatitis
•    Determination of aetiology
•    Initial management: Hydration, antibiotics or not, nutrition, ERCP for biliary acute pancreatitis
•    Work-up for recurrent acute pancreatitis

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma
•    Diagnostic work-up and pitfalls of available diagnostic modalities
•    Therapeutic management: chemotherapy and surgery, including management of elderly pa-tients
•    Palliation: The role of endoscopy, nutrition and pain management

Autoimmune disease of liver and bile ducts
•    Differential diagnosis and therapy of autoimmune liver disease: AIH, PBC, PSC and other cholangiopathies
•    Typical symptoms, histology, sensitivity and specificity of serology of autoimmune liver disease
•    Alternative diagnosis to exclude
•    Natural course of the disease and possible therapeutic interventions

Biliary stones
•    Clinical symptoms and imaging modalities for diagnosis of bile stones
•    Managing symptomatic biliary stones, including gallstones and choledocolithiasis
•    Defining indication and timing of EUS, ERCP and cholecystectomy

Cholangiocarcinoma
•    Diagnosis, classification and staging of cholangiocarcinoma
•    Indications and modalities for surgical resection
•    Indications for pre-operative tissue acquisition and stenting
•    The role of endoscopy and radiology for palliation and their limitations

Cystic pancreatic lesions
•    Differential diagnosis of cystic pancreatic lesions and the role of CT, MRI and EUS
•    Natural history of pancreatic cystic lesions and risk of malignant transformation
•    Management of cystic pancreatic lesions and the indications for surgery

Chronic intestinal failure
•    Causes of chronic intestinal failure
•    Short and long-term complications of chronic intestinal failure
•    Management of chronic intestinal failure: Total parenteral nutrition and beyond (including transplantation)

Coeliac disease
•    Coeliac disease: Epidemiology, diagnosis and therapeutic management
•    How to differentiate between coeliac disease, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, food allergies, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity and IBS
•    Refractory coeliac disease

Small bowel imaging and endoscopy
•    Overview of available modalities for small bowel imaging: capsule endoscopy, radiology studies, MRI, deep enteroscopy techniques
•    Occult blood loss: How to investigate and how to treat
•    Small bowel polyp resection (Peutz Jeghers)

Dyspepsia and gastroparesis
•    Definition and differential diagnosis of nausea and vomiting
•    Use of diagnostic tests such as imaging procedures and gastric emptying time
•    Pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapy for gastroparesis
•    Management of functional dyspepsia

H. pylori
•    Epidemiology and consequences of H. pylori infection
•    Available diagnostic modalities and their pitfalls
•    Effects on H. pylori infection on other organs and diseases
•    Eradication schemes and treatment resistance

Upper GI bleeding
•    Clinical assessment, investigation and therapy for acute upper GI bleeding, including special requirements for elderly patients
•    Management of patients on anticoagulant and anti-platelet therapy, both in the acute situation and before scheduled diagnostic or therapeutic endoscopy

Bariatric surgery
•    Indications and techniques for bariatric surgery and their mechanisms of actions
•    Complications following bariatric surgery and their management
•    Long-term physiological consequences of bariatric surgery and its metabolic complications

Gastric cancer
•    Epidemiology, risk factors and screening requirements
•    Diagnostic modalities for early and advanced cancer, including chromoendoscopy, electronic chromoendoscopy and imaging procedures
•    Therapeutic management: endoscopy and surgery

The upcoming topic and learning objectives will be determined annually by the UEG Scientific Committee.

Checkpoint inhibitors in GI-disease: Boon and bane 

• Indications for check-point inhibitors in GI-Cancer
• Diagnosis and differential diagnosis of Toxicity of Check-point inhibitor therapy
• Treatment of GI-toxicity of CPI, criteria for treatment discontinuation of CPI due to side effects