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Background: When cannulation is challenging during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and the standard guidewire technique with sphincterotomy is unsuccessful, alternative cannulation techniques can be used to access the biliary tree. The purpose of this study was to compare the incidence of adverse events and cannulation success rates between transpancreatic sphincterotomy (TPS) and precut sphincterotomy (PCS)., Methods: Data from the Swedish Registry for Gallstone Surgery and ERCP (GallRiks), collected from 2011 to 2022, were analyzed. A total of 105,303 ERCP procedures were recorded in GallRiks during the study period. After exclusions, the study population consisted of 47,486 ERCP procedures. Of these, 4547 received PCS and 3273 received TPS. The remaining 39,666 ERCP procedures with conventional sphincterotomy served as the control group. The primary endpoints were successful cannulation and adverse events within 30 days., Results: Successful cannulation was more frequent with the TPS technique than with the PCS technique (86.5% vs. 69.7%), but both groups had a lower cannulation rate than the control group (92.4%; OR-PCS 0.20, 95% CI 0.18-0.21; OR-TPS 0.58, 95% CI 0.52-0.64). The TPS group had a higher incidence of adverse events than the PCS group (24.1% vs. 18.8%) and both groups had a higher incidence of adverse events than the control group (15.5%; OR-PCS 1.25, 95% CI 1.15-1.36; OR-TPS 1.71, 95% CI 1.57-1.87). Adverse events for TPS were driven by a higher incidence of pancreatitis (10.5% vs. 6.4% vs. 4.5%; OR 2.53, 95% CI 2.23-2.86) and perforation (1.6% vs. 0.8% vs. 0.5%; OR 2.99, 95% CI 2.20-4.06) compared to both PCS and control., Conclusion: TPS is more successful at cannulation than PCS; however, this success comes at a higher cost in terms of adverse events, particularly pancreatitis and perforation., Competing Interests: Declarations. Disclosures: Dr. Gustafsson, Dr. Olsson, and Prof. Tingstedt have no conflict of interest or financial ties to disclose., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: In the setting of a naïve papilla, biliary cannulation is a key step in successfully performing endoscopic retrograde cholangiography. Difficult biliary cannulation (DBC) is associated with an increased risk of post-ERCP pancreatitis and failure of the whole procedure., Summary: Recommendations for biliary cannulation can be divided into (a) measures to reduce the likelihood of a difficult papilla situation a priori and (b) rescue techniques in case the endoscopist is actually facing DBC. (a) Careful inspection of the papillary anatomy and optimizing its accessibility by scope positioning is fundamental. A sphincterotome in combination with a soft-tip hydrophilic guidewire rather than a standard catheter with a standard guidewire should be used in most situations. (b) The most important rescue techniques are needle-knife precut, double-guidewire technique, and transpancreatic sphincterotomy. In few cases, anterograde cannulation techniques are needed. To this regard, the EUS-guided biliary drainage followed by rendezvous is increasingly used as an alternative to percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage. Key Messages: Biliary cannulation can be accomplished with alternative retrograde or less frequently by salvage anterograde techniques, once conventional direct cannulation attempts have failed. Considering recent favorable data for the early use of transpancreatic sphincterotomy, an adopted version of the 2016 European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) algorithm on biliary cannulation is proposed., (© 2021 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background: Selective deep biliary cannulation is the first and the most important step before further biliary therapy. Transpancreatic sphincterotomy (TPS), and needle knife fistulotomy (NKF) were commonly used in patients with difficult cannulation, but few studies compare the outcome between TPS and NKF., Methods: A total of 78 patients who met the criteria of difficult cannulation in the National Taiwan University hospital from October 2015 to October 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. Their baseline demographics, success rate of biliary cannulation, and the rate of adverse events were assessed., Results: 31 patients and 47 patients underwent TPS and NKF for difficult biliary access, respectively. The characteristics of the 2 groups were similar, but patients in TPS group had more frequent pancreatic duct cannulation. Bile duct cannulation was successful in 23 patients (74.2%) in the TPS group and 39 (83.0%) in the NKF group (P = 0.34). There was no difference between the TPS and NKF in the rate of adverse events, including post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) (16.1% vs. 6.4%, p = 0.17), and hemorrhage (3.2% vs. 8.5%, p = 0.35). No perforation occurred., Conclusions: Both TPS and NKF have good biliary access rate in patient with difficult cannulation. TPS has acceptable successful rate and similar complication rate, compared with NKF.

In 1970, a Japanese group reported the first use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which is now carried out worldwide. Selective bile duct cannulation is a mandatory technique for diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP. Development of the endoscope and other devices has contributed to the extended use of ERCP, which has become a basic procedure to diagnose and treat pancreaticobiliary diseases. Various techniques related to selective bile duct cannulation have been widely applied. Although the classical contrast medium injection cannulation technique remains valuable, use of wire-guided cannulation has expanded since the early 2000s, and the technique is now widely carried out in the USA and Europe. Endoscopists must pay particular attention to a patient's condition and make an attendant choice about the most effective technique for selective bile duct cannulation. Some techniques have the potential to shorten procedure time and reduce the incidence of adverse events, particularly post-ERCP pancreatitis. However, a great deal of experience is required and endoscopists must be skilled in a variety of techniques. Although the development of the transpapillary biliary cannulation approach is remarkable, it is important to note that, to date, there have been no reports of transpapillary cannulation preventing post-ERCP pancreatitis. In the present article, selective bile duct cannulation techniques in the context of recent Japanese randomized controlled trials and cases of precut sphincterotomy are reviewed and discussed., (© 2016 The Authors Digestive Endoscopy © 2016 Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society.)

Objective: Pancreatic duct guidewire placement (PDGP) includes double guidewire technique (DGT) and transpancreatic sphincterotomy (TPS). DGT can be switched to TPS with ease due to the existing guidewire in the pancreatic duct. In this study, we aimed to combine DGT and TPS as a single technique, named sequential PDGP, and to compare its performance with needle knife precut sphincterotomy (NKPS) in treating difficult biliary cannulation (BC)., Methods: A total of 83 patients with difficult BC were enrolled in this study. Of these, 63 underwent sequential PDGP and 20 underwent NKPS. Cannulation success rate, cannulation time and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)-related complications were prospectively recorded and compared between the two groups., Results: Successful BC was achieved in 88.9% (56/63) of the patients in the sequential PDGP group compared with 70.0% (14/20) in the NKPS group (P = 0.095). Cannulation time was 7.49 ± 5.03 min in the sequential PDGP group and 10.60 ± 7.24 min in the NKPS group (P = 0.086). Post-ERCP pancreatitis occurred in 12.7% of patients in the sequential PDGP group and 10.0% in the NKPS group (P = 1.000). There was no significant difference in the rates of other complications (bleeding, perforation and cholangitis) between the two groups., Conclusions: Sequential PDGP is a safe and effective alternative method to NKPS in cases of difficult BC. In those with failed standard cannulation, sequential PDGP can be considered when the guidewire is inadvertently inserted into the pancreatic duct or can be placed in the pancreatic duct without difficulty., (© 2015 Chinese Medical Association Shanghai Branch, Chinese Society of Gastroenterology, Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)