Guidewire-assisted Transpancreatic Sphincterotomy for Difficult Biliary Cannulation: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose:Precut techniques have been used to facilitate biliary cannulation during difficult endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Presently, needle-knife sphincterotomy (NKS) is a commonly used precut technique. Since its first description, transpancreatic sphincterotomy, as an alternative method for bile duct entry when conventional biliary cannulation failed, has been debated on its success rate of cannulation and its complications, such as increased incidence of pancreatitis. Guidewire techniques are another effective method to improve the success rate of selective bile duct cannulation. This is a single-center prospective randomized controlled trial aimed to compare success rate, cannulation time, and complications of guidewire-assisted transpancreatic sphincterotomy (GATS) and NKS for difficult biliary cannulation. Methods:Between July 2010 and October 2013, consecutive patients who failed in the standard biliary cannulation were randomly assigned to the GATS and NKS groups. The outcome measures included success rate, cannulation time, and complications. Results:A total of 149 patients were enrolled and analyzed: 73 in the GATS group and 79 in the NKS group. The characteristics of the 2 groups were similar. Bile duct cannulation was successful in 70 patients (95.9%) in the GATS group and 64 (84.2%) in the NKS group (P=0.018). The median cannulation time spent in precut was 193 seconds in the GATS group and 485 seconds in the NKS group (P
Source: Surgical Laparoscopy, Endoscopy and Percutaneous Techniques - Category: Surgery Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research