Tips for the Endoscopy Suite: Measurement of Polyp Size using the “QTip Ruler”

PDF - Tips for the Endoscopy Suite: Measurement of Polyp Size using the “QTip Ruler”

An elderly patient underwent colonoscopy for hemoccult positive stools. During colonoscopy a broad-based polypoid lesion was found in the distal transverse colon. After submucosal injection an endoscopic mucosal resection was performed. How do you usually measure the size of the resected lesions? Often, we have a ruler in the “toolbox” of our endoscopy suite. Herein we present a practical measuring device, the “Q tip or cotton tip applicator ruler”.

These pair of cotton tips have various uses in the endoscopy suite:

Remove polyps or tissue from the polyp traps,
Remove resected tissue stuck at forceps, which can be done with the cotton tip or also breaking the stick in two and using a “sharp” end to remove the tissue from the biopsy forceps, and
Use the ruler printed on the package to measure polyps or other things, such as removed foreign bodies, plastic stents, etc.

No COI by AD or KM with any of the companies/utensils or products mentioned in this article.

About the authors

Anand Dwivedi, MD

Gastroenterologist

Raleigh Medical Group Gastroenterology, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Anand Dwivedi, MD, is a gastroenterologist with Raleigh Medical Group Gastroenterology in North Carolina. He earned his medical degree from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, completed internal medicine residency at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center where he served as Chief Resident, and completed his gastroenterology fellowship at Carilion Clinic / Virginia Tech in 2025. His clinical interests include general gastroenterology, inflammatory bowel disease, and esophageal motility disorders.

Klaus Mönkemüller, MD, PhD, FASGE, FJGES, FESGE

Editor-in-Chief, The Practicing Endoscopist

Professor of Medicine, Carilion Memorial Hospital / Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, Virginia, USA

Klaus Mönkemüller, MD, PhD, FASGE, FJGES, FESGE, is the editor-in-chief of The Practicing Endoscopist and the founder of EndoCollab. He is Professor of Medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and a practicing endoscopist at Carilion Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia.

Dr. Mönkemüller has published extensively on endoscopic techniques and devices, with a particular focus on therapeutic endoscopy, foreign body removal, GI bleeding, and the use of caps and accessories in everyday practice. He lectures internationally and has contributed to multiple GI endoscopy textbooks and atlases.

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