Comparison of the Performance of Monopolar Current Cutting Knife and Bipolar RFA Knife in POEM (Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy)

Per Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) is performed for various esophageal motility disorders, including achalasia and other spastic esophageal conditions. It is performed with the standard endoscope and involves dissection of the esophageal submucosa followed by cutting of the esophageal muscle. The procedure is typically completed using standard monopolar cutting knives, which are effective, but can be associated with inadvertent thermal injury and post-procedural pain due to dissemination of higher voltage. More importantly, frequent exchange of various instruments are required in order to inject within the submucosa and to coagulate bleeding vessels. The Speedboat-RSD has an integrated injection needle for submucosal injection and uses bipolar radiofrequency energy (BRF) and microwave energy to dissect tissue/coagulate vessels. In essence, injection, submucosal dissection, cutting, and coagulation can all occur with one knife (2). It is FDA approved for submucosal dissection (ESD) and myotomy within the gastrointestinal tract but only a few studies have evaluated its use in POEM (3). Currently, the investigators have been performing EGD with the POEM procedure using Speedboat-RSD as a standard of care procedure. The investigators would like to compare the performance of the standard monopolar ERBE knife to the bipolar Speedboat-RSD knife in POEM. The investigators hypothesize the bipolar knife will allow for efficient completion of the POEM procedure with less post-procedural related pain.