[A review of the clinical application of dyes in gastrointestinal chromoendoscopy, and their magistral formulation].
OBJECTIVE
To review the drug compounding of dyes employed in chromoendoscopy, and their clinical effectiveness.


METHODS
A literature search in Medline, Cochrane Library, and Micromedex was carried out with the term chromoendoscopy as a keyword, and the search was then repeated for each dye found in association with the term endoscopy. A number of monographs, scientific journals, and references quoted in selected papers were also reviewed. Papers collected were then classified according to their methodology.


RESULTS
Ninety-six references were found, their original article being recovered for only 57 of these - 13 clinical trials, 21 case series, and 11 reviews. References were found for 7 dyes. Main indications, evidence of effectiveness, administration route, and drug formulation are described for each dye.


CONCLUSIONS
The number of papers involved is high, but their accessibility is limited. Evidence is overall scarce, but high in cases such as methylene blue for Barrett s esophagus, lugol in the detection of esophageal carcinoma, and indigo carmine for colonic hyperplastic polyp differentiation. Drug compounding is rather simple, but scarcely developed.
Marín
R
R
Servicio de Farmacia, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain. romagil179@hotmail.com
Gil
M V
MV
Castellano
M M
MM
Alvarez
C
C
Belda
O
O
D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004339:Drug Compounding; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans
D004396:Coloring Agents