1: ESGE recommends routine rectal administration of 100 mg of diclofenac or indomethacin immediately before endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in all patients without ...contraindications to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug administration.Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 2: ESGE recommends prophylactic pancreatic stenting in selected patients at high risk for post-ERCP pancreatitis (inadvertent guidewire insertion/opacification of the pancreatic duct, double-guidewire cannulation).Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 3: ESGE suggests against routine endoscopic biliary sphincterotomy before the insertion of a single plastic stent or an uncovered/partially covered self-expandable metal stent for relief of biliary obstruction.Weak recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 4: ESGE recommends against the routine use of antibiotic prophylaxis before ERCP.Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 5: ESGE suggests antibiotic prophylaxis before ERCP in the case of anticipated incomplete biliary drainage, for severely immunocompromised patients, and when performing cholangioscopy.Weak recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 6: ESGE suggests tests of coagulation are not routinely required prior to ERCP for patients who are not on anticoagulants and not jaundiced.Weak recommendation, low quality evidence.
7: ESGE suggests against salvage pancreatic stenting in patients with post-ERCP pancreatitis.Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. 8: ESGE suggests temporary placement of a biliary fully covered self-expandable metal stent for post-sphincterotomy bleeding refractory to standard hemostatic modalities.Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. 9: ESGE suggests to evaluate patients with post-ERCP cholangitis by abdominal ultrasonography or computed tomography (CT) scan and, in the absence of improvement with conservative therapy, to consider repeat ERCP. A bile sample should be collected for microbiological examination during repeat ERCP.Weak recommendation, low quality evidence.
Background and Aim
The main treatment aim in chronic pancreatitis (CP) is symptom control and especially pain relief. Management of stone‐predominant CP is challenging and requires a ...multidisciplinary approach. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has emerged as the cornerstone of non‐surgical treatment as a result of disappointing results of available endoscopic treatment options during the last decades. With new developments in the field of direct peroral pancreatoscopy (POP) and intracorporeal lithotripsy, direct intraluminal treatment of main pancreatic duct (MPD) stones returns to the spotlight.
Methods
Herein, we reviewed the current data on direct pancreatoscopic treatment of MPD stones with a focus on efficiency and safety of available technologies, endoscopes and lithotripsy devices. A systematic Medline search for relevant studies was done.
Results
Ten relevant publications meeting the inclusion criteria were identified (two prospective series, six retrospective trials, two case reports, n = 87 patients). Successful ductal clearance for POP‐guided treatment was reported as between 43% and 100% compared to ESWL with 59% to 80%. Adverse event rate for POP‐guided therapy was reported as 0–13.5%. One study showed a noticeable higher adverse event rate of 43%. In this trial, POP was carried out after ESWL. There is no reported mortality following POP treatment.
Conclusion
Available results are promising in terms of ductal clearance and pain relief compared to standard endoscopic techniques and ESWL as the current gold standard for lithotripsy. Interpretation of this data is limited by the small number of cases for POP and the lack of prospective randomized controlled trials.
Accurately diagnosing indeterminate biliary strictures is challenging but important for patient prognostication and further management. Biopsy sampling under direct cholangioscopic vision might be ...superior to standard ERCP techniques such as brushing or biopsy sampling. Our aim was to investigate whether digital single-operator cholangioscopy (DSOC) compared with standard ERCP workup improves the diagnostic yield in patients with indeterminate biliary strictures.
Patients with an indeterminate biliary stricture on the basis of MRCP were randomized to standard ERCP visualization with tissue brushing (control arm CA) or DSOC visualization and DSOC-guided biopsy sampling (study arm SA). This was a prospective, international, multicenter trial with a procedure-blinded pathologist.
The first sample sensitivity of DSOC-guided biopsy samples was significantly higher than ERCP-guided brushing (SA 68.2% vs CA 21.4%, P < .01). The sensitivity of visualization (SA 95.5% vs CA 66.7%, P = .02) and overall accuracy (SA 87.1% vs CA 65.5%, P = .05) were significantly higher in the SA compared with the CA, whereas specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value showed no significant difference. Adverse events were equally low in both arms.
DSOC-guided biopsy sampling was shown to be safe and effective with a higher sensitivity compared with standard ERCP techniques in the visual and histopathologic diagnosis of indeterminate biliary strictures. (Clinical trial registration number: NCT 03140007.)
Pancreatic cystic lesions (PCL) are increasingly diagnosed. Endoscopic ultrasound fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) cytology is often used for diagnostic confirmation but can be inconclusive. In this ...study, the role of molecular analyses in the pre-operative diagnostics of PCL is evaluated. Targeted Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) applied on cytology smears was retrospectively evaluated in a cohort of 37 resected PCL. Usefulness of NGS on fresh cyst fluids was tested in a prospective cohort of patients with newly diagnosed PCL (n = 71). In the retrospective cohort, cytology plus NGS displayed higher sensitivity (94.1% vs. 87.1%) and specificity (100% vs. 50%) than cytology alone for the detection of mucinous neoplasms. In the prospective cohort, sensitivity and specificity of conventional cytology alone were 54.2% and 100% for the detection of mucinous neoplasia and 50.0% and 100% for the detection of high-grade dysplasia, respectively. Adding NGS, all lesions which underwent histopathologic verification (12/71, 17%) could be classified without false positive or false negative results regarding the detection of mucinous neoplasm so far. NGS analysis of cfDNA in PCL fluids is feasible and can increase diagnostic accuracy in the detection of mucinous neoplasms compared to cytology alone. However, algorithms for the detection of high-risk lesions need further improvement.
The current therapy of neoplastic Barrett's esophagus (BE) consists of endoscopic resection plus ablation, with radiofrequency ablation as the best studied technique. This prospective trial assesses ...a potential alternative, namely hybrid argon plasma ablation.
Consecutive patients with neoplastic BE undergoing ablation after curative endoscopic resection (89.6%) or primarily were included into this prospective trial in 9 European centers. Up to 5 ablation sessions were allowed for complete eradication of BE (initial complete eradication of intestinal metaplasia CE-IM), by definition including BE-associated neoplasia, documented by 1 negative endoscopy with biopsies. The main outcome was the rate of initial CE-IM in intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) samples at 2 years. The secondary end points were the rate of recurrence-free cases (sustained CE-IM) documented by negative follow-up endoscopies with biopsies and immediate/delayed adverse events.
One hundred fifty-four patients (133 men and 21 women, mean age 64 years) received a mean of 1.2 resection and 2.7 ablation sessions (range 1-5). Initial CE-IM was achieved in 87.2% of 148 cases in the PP analysis (ITT 88.4%); initial BE-associated neoplasia was 98.0%. On 2-year follow-up of the 129 successfully treated cases, 70.8% (PP) or 65.9% (ITT) showed sustained CE-IM; recurrences were mostly endoscopy-negative biopsy-proven BE epithelium and neoplasia in 3 cases. Adverse events were seen in 6.1%.
Eradication and recurrence rates of Barrett's intestinal metaplasia and neoplasia by means of hybrid argon plasma coagulation at 2 years seem to be within expected ranges. Final evidence in comparison to radiofrequency ablation can only be provided by a randomized comparative trial.
1: ESGE recommends that all duodenal adenomas should be considered for endoscopic resection as progression to invasive carcinoma is highly likely.Strong recommendation, low quality evidence. 2: ESGE ...recommends performance of a colonoscopy, if that has not yet been done, in cases of duodenal adenoma.Strong recommendation, low quality evidence. 3: ESGE recommends the use of the cap-assisted method when the location of the minor and/or major papilla and their relationship to a duodenal adenoma is not clearly established during forward-viewing endoscopy.Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 4: ESGE recommends the routine use of a side-viewing endoscope when a laterally spreading adenoma with extension to the minor and/or major papilla is suspected.Strong recommendation, low quality evidence. 5: ESGE suggests cold snare polypectomy for small (< 6 mm in size) nonmalignant duodenal adenomas.Weak recommendation, low quality evidence. 6: ESGE recommends endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) as the first-line endoscopic resection technique for nonmalignant large nonampullary duodenal adenomas.Strong recommendation, moderate quality evidence. 7: ESGE recommends that endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for duodenal adenomas is an effective resection technique only in expert hands.Strong recommendation, low quality evidence. 8: ESGE recommends using techniques that minimize adverse events such as immediate or delayed bleeding or perforation. These may include piecemeal resection, defect closure techniques, noncontact hemostasis, and other emerging techniques, and these should be considered on a case-by-case basis.Strong recommendation, low quality evidence. 9: ESGE recommends endoscopic surveillance 3 months after the index treatment. In cases of no recurrence, a further follow-up endoscopy should be done 1 year later. Thereafter, surveillance intervals should be adapted to the lesion site, en bloc resection status, and initial histological result. Strong recommendation, low quality evidence.
Background
Standard endoscopic treatment might fail to treat biliary stone disease. Here, we investigated the efficacy and safety of recently introduced digital single-operator video cholangioscopy ...(SOVC) for the treatment of difficult biliary stones.
Methods
Digital SOVC procedures, performed in two tertiary referral centers between 2015 and 2018, were retrospectively analyzed. Only patients with a previous failure of endoscopic standard treatment and a SOVC-based biliary stone treatment using electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL) or laser lithotripsy (LL) were included. The primary endpoint was to evaluate the stone removal rate per procedure and per patient.
Results
In total, 75 examinations with a digital SOVC-assisted biliary stone treatment, performed in 60 patients, were identified. Biliary stones were mainly located extrahepatic (64%) and less frequently intrahepatic (36%). The median stone size was 20 mm (interquartile range IQR: 10–25 mm) and the median stone number was 1 (IQR: 1–2). Digital SOVC-based treatment of biliary stone disease was successful in 95% of patients and 15% needed at least two treatment sessions. Evaluated per procedure, a complete stone removal was accomplished in 67% of all examinations (including initial and repeated procedures), while an incomplete stone removal was observed in 33% of cases. The per procedure analyzes revealed that the success rates for a complete stone removal were similar between LL and EHL (66% vs. 68%;
p
= 0.87). Complications, such as postinterventional cholangitis and pancreatitis occurred in 16% of examinations; however, except from one case, all were mild or moderate and no procedure-associated mortality occurred.
Conclusions
Digital SOVC-assisted biliary stone treatment is highly effective even in cases with difficult biliary stones and might be considered the new standard of care for these patients. Furthermore, mild up to moderate complications were intermittently observed which might document the complexity of our included cases.
Biliary diseases are common, but clinical symptoms are often unspecific and direct access and visualization of the biliopancreatic system for diagnostic purpose is difficult. In the last decades ...endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has become a primary method in the gastrointestinal tract. It significantly changed the role of endoscopy in diagnostic imaging in the gastrointestinal tract and adjacent organs. EUS has become an effective diagnostic tool in biliary stone disease as well as in the diagnosis of indeterminate biliary strictures. Furthermore, an EUS-directed transmural approach emerged as a safe and effective alternative to ERCP in patients requiring biliary drainage, in particular as a backup method if standard ERCP-approach fails. Development of new techniques, specific accessories and stents during the last decade led to an enormous step forward in terms of efficacy and safety of an EUS-directed approach. In the current article technical and clinical aspects of EUS-guided diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in different clinical indications will be discussed together with a review of the available data.
PDF
