ERCP practice at a tertiary care hospital in Kashmir, North India: a large single-center cross-sectional study with focus on quality indicators, success rate, and indications.

UNLABELLED: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is the most technically demanding endoscopic procedure with significant adverse events that mandate appropriate training, competence and careful decision-making. The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) updated a list of quality indicators and performance measures for pancreatobiliary endoscopy. Nevertheless, real-life data are scarce, especially from developing countries. The study aimed to assess overall quality, procedural success, and indications of ERCP at our center.

METHODS

An audit of our endoscopy center at the start of the study for quality and performance indicators and a retrospective analysis of the 4 years of the prospectively maintained data of patients who underwent ERCP regarding procedural success and indications was done.

RESULTS

The study showed that ERCP is performed by meeting good quality standards, but structured training, sedation practice, and microbiological surveillance are subpar. A total of 3544 procedures were carried out with successful cannulation of the naive papilla in 93%, with 60% of procedures carried out on females, 80.5% of procedures done for benign diseases, and 19.5% on suspected or proven malignancy (47% men and 53% women) with perihilar obstruction being commonest in both sexes (32-33%) followed by carcinoma gallbladder in women (21%) and distal cholangiocarcinoma in men (27%). Among benign diseases (2711), 12% had benign pancreatic diseases, and 64.8% had common bile duct (CBD) stones, with 31% of CBD stones requiring more than one session for clearance.

CONCLUSION

ERCP at our center is performed by meeting quality standards and by competent endoscopists with good procedural success. Improving sedation strategies, microbiological surveillance, and training programs remains an unmet need.