EUS-guided gallbladder drainage is as good as laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic cholelithiasis: Wait! …what?!

Gallbladder interventions have evolved greatly over the past several hundred years. Because of the belief that humans could not live without a gallbladder, the earliest surgical intervention was cholecystostomy with removal of fluid and stones.1 The first successful cholecystectomy was performed in Germany in 1882.1 Nearly 100 years later, the first percutaneous cholecystostomy was performed in 19802 followed by the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 1985.1 Although transpapillary gallbladder drainage was described in 1990,3 it has not been widely accepted outside of tertiary centers because of technical complexities and constraints of the small-diameter cystic duct that allows placement of only small-diameter stents.
Source: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research