Gastroscholar

For most nonpedunculated colorectal polyps under 10 mm, cold snare is the default. That argument, the 2023 pragmatic RCT, AGA 2024, ESGE 2024, and the pedunculated exception all live on one permalink. This leftover WordPress stub only points there.

Original GastroScholar summary card for cold versus hot snare. Not an endoscopic photograph.
Original GastroScholar summary card. Not an endoscopic photograph. This URL is a map onto the CSP page. It does not invent mucosa.

Experienced teaching points

Clinical Pearls

  1. Nonpedunculated under 10 mm: cold snare, including a 1-2 mm rim of normal. Not hot forceps.
  2. Pedunculated under 10 mm is a different conversation. Immediate bleed is more common with cold.
  3. Do not routinely clip defects under 20 mm after ordinary small-polyp resection.
  4. Technique, RCT numbers, and references: the CSP page.

GI Endoscopy · 4 min read

Cold vs Hot Snare: Use the CSP Page, Not This Leftover URL

This URL is the map. Cold snare polypectomy for sub-10 mm polyps is the clinical page. Do not keep two competing CSP articles.

Clinical Bottom Line

URL What it is for
/tips-for-effective-cold-snare-polypectomy-because-hot-snare-isnt-always-the-hero/ Canonical CSP page. AGA 2024 CPU (PMID 38032585). ESGE 2024. Chang 2023 RCT (PMID 36802753). Pedunculated bleed (PMID 38775310).
/sessile-serrated-adenomas-know-the-signs-and-symptoms/ Sessile serrated lesions. Cold thinking still applies. WASP, WHO 2019, CARE, SSLDR.
/hyperplastic-polyps-what-you-need-to-know/ Rectosigmoid diminutive HP: leave-in-situ versus resect-and-discard. Not a CSP tutorial.

What does this URL actually say?

Cold snare for diminutive and small sessile polyps. Hot snare for selected stalks and for many 10-19 mm adenomatous lesions after a lift. That is the whole stub. The working article is longer, cited, and already live. Expanding this slug into a second CSP review would compete with it.

Chang 2023 (PMID 36802753): delayed bleeding 0.4% cold versus 1.5% hot in 4-10 mm polyps, faster resection, no meaningful drop in complete histologic resection. That is why the default flipped. Read it on the CSP page.

WordPress shipped a short mechanics stub here in 2024. Search still hits it. Pointing is the honest use of an existing address. Do not 301 the strong November 2025 CSP URL onto this older stub.

Selected references

  1. AGA Clinical Practice Update on Appropriate and Tailored Polypectomy. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024.
  2. Chang LC, et al. Cold versus hot snare polypectomy for small colorectal polyps. Ann Intern Med. 2023.
  3. Bleeding risk of cold versus hot snare polypectomy for pedunculated colorectal polyps 10 mm or less. Am J Gastroenterol. 2024.

Last reviewed September 20, 2026. Written for clinicians who searched cold versus hot snare and need the guideline page, not a second copy of it.

Topics

For your teaching file

Save this article as a PDF

Drop your email and we'll open a print-ready version you can save as a PDF — and you'll start getting our weekly GI endoscopy newsletter.

Save as PDF

Resection Mechanics: Cold Snare (CSP) vs. Hot Snare (HSP)

Enter your email — we'll open a clean print-ready version of this article. Choose Save as PDF in the print dialog to download.

Free, no spam. Gastroscholar newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.

← All articles