Difficult biliary cannulation: use of physician-controlled wire-guided cannulation over a pancreatic duct stent to reduce the rate of precut sphincterotomy (with video).

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.