Updates in biliary endoscopy

Efficacy of spyglass-guided electrohydraulic lithotripsy in difficult bile duct stones

BACKGROUND/AIMS

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Spyglass-guided electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL) for difficult common bile duct stones (CBD) not amenable to conventional endoscopic therapy.

DESIGN

A retrospective study evaluating the efficacy of Spyglass-guided EHL in treating difficult CBD stones, in a single tertiary care center.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All patients who underwent Spyglass-guided EHL from 2012 to 2013 were compared with a historical cohort who had ECSWL.

RESULTS

A total number of 13 patients underwent Spyglass-guided EHL, 8 (61.5%) of them were males. The mean age was 46.5 ± 5.6 years. Bile duct clearance was achieved in 13 (100%) of them. Seventy-six percent required only one Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to clear the CBD, 7.7% required two ERCPs, and 15.4% required three ERCPs. Adverse effects (cholangitis) occurred in one patient (10%), whereas only 30 patients (64.4%) of the ESWL group had complete CBD stone clearance. Thirty-seven percent required one ERCP to clear the CBD, 35.6% required two ERCPs, and 20% required three ERCPs. Adverse effects happened in seven (15.5%) patients, where five (11%) had cholangitis and two (4.4%) had pancreatitis.

CONCLUSION

Although a retrospective design with a small sample size, we concluded that Spyglass-guided EHL is an effective procedure in treating difficult CBD stones.

Estudo prospectivo e comparativo do escovado obtido pela CPER à ecoendoscopia associada à punção aspirativa com agulha fina (EE-PAAF) no diagnóstico diferencial das estenoses biliares

OBJETIVO: Avaliar o desempenho diagnóstico da citologia obtida pela CPER, aquele obtido pela EE-PAAF e a concordância entre patologistas gerais (PG) e especialistas (PE) em pacientes com estenose biliar. MÉTODOS: Incluímos pacientes com estenose biliar identificados pela CPER. A EE-PAAF foi realizada apenas em áreas com efeito de massa ou da parede espessada do ducto biliar. O padrão-ouro foi a cirurgia, histologia e/ou o seguimento. As amostras teciduais foram consideradas: malignas, suspeitas, atípicas, insuficientes ou benignas. Os espécimes obtidos por cada método foi interpretado (cego) por um PG e outro PE. RESULTADO: 46 pacientes foram incluídos (37 malignos e 9 benignos). O diagnóstico final foi de tumor pancreático (26), biliar (11), pancreatite crônica (8) e estenose inflamatória do ducto biliar (1). Sensibilidade e acurácia da CPER foram 43,2% e 52,2% para o PG e 51,4% e 58,7% para o PE. Sensibilidade e acurácia da EE-PAAF foi 52,8% e 58,5% para o PG e 69,4% e 73,2% para o PE. A combinação entre a CPER e EE-PAAF demonstrou maior sensibilidade e acurácia para ambos PG (64,9% e 69,6%) e PE (83,8% e 84,8%), respectivamente. CONCLUSÃO: A citologia obtida pelo escovado da via biliar durante a CPER e as amostras teciduais colhidas pela EE-PAAF tem rendimento semelhante para o diagnóstico das estenoses biliares. No entanto, a combinação dos métodos resulta em uma maior acurácia. Além disso, espera-se que a interpretação das amostras ocorra com maior precisão pelo PE se comparado ao PG.

Intraductal biliary and pancreatic endoscopy: An expanding scope of possibility

Intraductal endoscopy describes the use of an endoscope to directly visualize the biliary and pancreatic ducts. For many years, technological challenges have made performing these procedures difficult. The “mother-baby” system and other various miniscopes have been developed, but routine use has been hampered due to complex setup, scope fragility and the time consuming, technically demanding nature of the procedure. Recently, the SpyGlass peroral cholangiopancreatoscopy system has shown early success at providing diagnostic information and therapeutic options. The clinical utility of intraductal endoscopy is broad. It allows better differentiation between benign and malignant processes by allowing direct visualization and targeted sampling of tissue. Therapeutic interventions, such as electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL), laser lithotripsy, photodynamic therapy, and argon plasma coagulation (APC), may also be performed as part of intraductal endoscopy. Intraductal endoscopy significantly increases the diagnostic and therapeutic yield of standard endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERCP), and as technology progresses, it is likely that its utilization will only increase. In this review of intraductal endoscopy, we describe in detail the various endoscopic platforms and their diagnostic and clinical applications.