Difficult biliary cannulation

Abstract

Background Successful cannulation of the common bile duct (CBD) remains the benchmark for ERCP. Use of a pancreatic duct (PD) stent to facilitate biliary cannulation has been described, although the majority of patients require precut sphincterotomy to achieve CBD cannulation.

Objective To report the performance characteristics of using a PD stent in conjunction with physician-controlled wire-guided cannulation (WGC) to facilitate bile duct cannulation.

Design Retrospective cohort.

Setting Two tertiary care, academic medical centers.

Patients All undergoing ERCP with native papillae.

Intervention In cases of difficult biliary access in which the PD is cannulated, a pancreatic stent is placed. After this, physician-controlled WGC is attempted by using the PD stent to direct the sphincterotome into the biliary orifice. If cannulation is unsuccessful after several minutes, a precut sphincterotomy is performed over the PD stent or the procedure is terminated.

Main Outcome Measurements Frequency of successful bile duct cannulation and precut sphincterotomy.

Results A total of 2345 ERCPs were identified, 1544 with native papillae. Among these, CBD and PD cannulation failed in 16 (1.0%) patients, whereas 76 (4.9%) patients received a PD stent to facilitate biliary cannulation. Successful cannulation was achieved in 71 (93.4%) of 76 patients, 60 (78.9%) of whom did not require precut sphincterotomy. Complications included mild post-ERCP pancreatitis in 4 (5.3%) and aspiration in 1 (1.3%). Precut sphincterotomy was complicated by hemorrhage, controlled during the procedure in 2 (13.3%) of 15.

Conclusions Physician-controlled WGC over a PD stent facilitates biliary cannulation while maintaining a low rate of precut sphincterotomy.