The timing of endoscopic sphincterotomy in gallstone acute pancreatitis

European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Volumn 9, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 137-144

  Wilson, Paul G ^a   Ogunbiyi, Olagunju ^b   Neoptolemos, John P ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

ERCP; Gallstones; Pancreatitis; Sphincterotomy

Indexed keywords

ACUTE PANCREATITIS; CHOLELITHIASIS; ENDOSCOPIC RETROGRADE CHOLANGIOPANCREATOGRAPHY; ENDOSCOPIC SPHINCTEROTOMY; GALLSTONE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; REVIEW;

EID: 0031047827     PISSN: 0954691X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1097/00042737-199702000-00006     Document Type: Review

References (64)

1. Opie EL: The relation of cholelithiasis to disease of the pancreas and to fat necrosis. Am J Med Sci 1901, 121:27-43.
2. Opie EL: The etiology of acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis. Bull Johm Hopkins Hosp 1901, 121:182-188.
3. Winslet MC, Hall C, London NJM, Neoptolemos JP: Relationship of diagnostic serum amylase to aetiology and prognosis in acute pancreatitis. Gut 1992, 33:982-986.
4. Elliot DW, Williams RD, Zollinger RM: Alterations in the pancreatic resistance to bile in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis. Ann Surg 1957, 146:669-682.
5. Wilson C, Imrie CW, Carter DC: Fatal acute pancreatitis. Gut 1988, 29:782-788.
6. White TT, Magee DF. Perfusion of the dog pancreas with bile without producing pancreatitis. Ann Surg 1960, 131:245-250.
7. Arendt T, Broschewitz U: Bile induced acute oedematous pancreatitis in rats: non-parallel changes in pancreatic morphology and amylase release in vitro. Gut 1994, 35:1127-1131. Microinfusion of bile into the pancreatic duct under physiological pressure in rats was performed. There was initially disturbance in acinar cell function, though this returned to normal despite the subsequent development of an oedematous pancreatitis.
8. Sarkany RPE, Moreland BH: Enhancement of the autocatalytic activation of trypsinogen to trypsin by bile and bile acids. Biochim Biophys Acta 1985, 839:262-267.
9. Robinson TM, Dunphy JE: Continuous perfusion of bile protease through the pancreas. JAMA 1963, 183:530-533.
10. Csendes A, Sepülveda A, Burdiles P, Bradhetto I, Basitiias J, Schütte H, et al.: Common bile duct pressure in patients with common bile duct stones with or without suppurative cholangitis. Arch Surg 1988, 123:697-699.
11. Hernandez CA, Lerch MM: Sphincter stenosis and gallstone migration through the biliary tract. Lancet 1993, 341:1371-1373. A study of 21 patients all of whom had a T-tube in situ following cholecystectomy. Those who had had an episode of acute gallstone pancreatitis had markedly raised levels of pancreatic amylase in the T-tube fluid, but no duodenal brush border enzymes. The conclusion was that there was a functional stenosis of the ampulla following the passage of a gallstone in these patients.
12. Lerch MM, Weidenbach H, Hernandez CA, Preclik G, Adler G: Pancreatic outflow obstruction as the critical event for human gallstone induced pancreatitis. gut 1994, 35:1501-1503. A case report of a woman with a T-tube in situ who developed acute pancreatitis due to an impacted stone. There was elevated amylase in the T-tube fluid and it was left on free drainage, suggesting impaired pancreatic outflow as the cause of the pancreatitis.
13. McCutcheon AD: Aetiological factors in pancreatitis. Lancet 1962, i:710-712.
14. Lerch MM, Saluja AK, Runzi M, Dawra R, Saluja M, Steer ML: Pancreatic duct obstruction triggers acute necrotising pancreatitis in the opossum. Gastroenterology 1993, 104:853-861. Opossums had their pancreatic duct, their pancreatic and common bile duct or the common pancreaticobiliary duct ligated. All three groups developed haemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis suggesting that bile reflux is not necessary for the development or severity of pancreatitis.
15. Senninger N, Moody FC, Coelho JCU, Van Buren DH: The role of biliary obstruction in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis in the opossum. Surgery 1986, 99:688-693.
16. Runkel NS, Rodrigues LF, LaRocco MT, Moody FC: Mechanisms of pancreatic infection in acute pancreatitis in opossums. Curr Surg 1990, 47:460-462.
17. Runkel NS, Rodrigues LF, Moody FC, LaRocco MT, Blasdel T: Salmonella infection of the biliary and intestinal tract of wild opossums. Lab Anim Sci 1991, 41:54-56.
18. Hirano T, Manabe T: A possible mechanism for gallstone pancreatitis: repeated short-term pancreaticobiliary duct obstruction with exocrine stimulation in rats. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1993, 202:246-252. Rats had their pancreatic duct obstructed for 4 hours, which caused a rise in serum amylase and a colocalization of lysosomal enzymes. Repeated obstruction brought about more severe changes in nearly all the parameters measured, and was felt to be a good model for the findings in human acute pancreatitis due to intermittent gallstone passage through the ampulla of Vater.
19. Bell ET: Pancreatitis: a study of 179 fatal cases. Surgery 1958, 43:527-537.
20. Shader AE, Paxton JR: Fatal pancreatitis. Am J Surg 1966, 111:369-373.
21. Storck C, Pettersson G, Edlund Y: A study of autopsies upon 116 patients with acute pancreatitis. Surg Gynecol Obstet 1976, 143:241-245.
22. Acosta IL, Ledesma CL. Gallstone migration as a cause for acute pancreatitis. New Engl J Med 1974, 190:484-487.
23. Rünzi M, Saluja A, Lerch MM, Dawra R, Nishino H, Steer ML: Early ductal decompression prevents the progression of biliary pancreatitis: an experimental study in the opossum. Gastroenterology 1993, 105:157-164. In this study the pancreaticobiliary duct of the opossum was obstructed with a balloon catheter for 1, 3 or 5 days. The longer the period of obstruction the more severe the degree of pancreatitis. If the catheter was removed after 1 or 3 days this reduced the severity seen at 5 days, showing that in this model the severity of the pancreatitis is related to the duration of obstruction.
24. Neoptolemos IP, Hall A, Finlay DF, Berry JM, Carr-Locke DL, Fossard DP: The urgent diagnosis of gallstones in acute pancreatitis: a prospective study of the methods. Br J Surg 1984, 71:230-247.
25. Wang SS, Lin XZ, Tsai YT, Lee SD, Pan HB, Chou YH, et al.: Clinical significance of ultrasonography, computed tomography, and biochemical tests in the rapid diagnosis of gallstone-related pancreatitis: a prospective study. Pancreas 1988, 3:153-158.
26. Neoptolemos JP, London N, Bailey I, Shaw D, Carr-Locke DL, Fossard DP, et al.: The role of clinical and biochemical criteria and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the urgent diagnosis of common bile duct stones in acute pancreatitis. Surgery 1987, 100:732-742.
27. Neoptolemos JP, London Nj, James D, Carr-Locke DL, Bailey IA, Fossard DP: Controlled trial of urgent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic sphincterotomy versus conservative treatment for acute pancreatitis due to gallstones. Lancet 1988, ii:979-983. One hundred and twenty-one patients with gallstone-induced acute pancreatitis were prospectively stratified according to severity and then randomized to undergo ERCP/ES or conventional treatment. The severe group did better if they underwent urgent (within 72 h) ERCP/ES than those treated conservatively.
28. Ostroff JW, Shapiro HA: Complications of endoscopic sphincterotomy. In ERCP: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications. Edited by I Jacobsen. New York: Elsevier; 1989:61-73.
29. Gumaste VV, Dave PB, Weissman D, Messer J: Lipase/amylase ratio. A new index that distinguishes acute episodes of alcoholic from non-alcoholic acute pancreatitis. Gastroenterology 1991, 101:1361-1366. A lipase-amylase ratio was calculated for 51 patients prospectively with acute pancreatitis. A ratio of more than 2 was thought to be discriminating for alcohol-induced acute pancreatitis.
30. Pezzilli R, Billi P, Migliola M, Gullo L: Serum amylase and lipase concentrations and lipase/amylase ratio in assessment of etiology and severity of acute pancreatitis. Dig Dis Sci 1993, 38:1265-1269. A study of 66 consecutive patients with acute pancreatitis which demonstrated that there was no difference in the amylase-lipase ratio, irrespective of aetiology or severity of the condition.
31. Sadowski DC, Todd JK, Sutherland LR: Biochemical models as early predictors of the etiology of acute pancreatitis. Dig Dis Sci 1993, 38:637-643. One hundred and sixty-two patients with acute pancreatitis were studied. There was no useful discriminatory biochemical test for acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis, but AST, ALP and bilirubin were all useful for predicting the presence of gallstones.
32. Jaakkola M, Sillanaukee P, Lof K, Koivula T, Nordback I: Blood tests for detection of alcoholic cause of acute pancreatitis. Lancet 1994, 343:1328-1329. Serum carbohydrate-deficient transferrin was measured in 86 consecutive patients with acute pancreatitis and was found to correlate significantly with reported 2-month and 7-day ethanol consumption. It was significantly higher in 42 patients with alcohol-induced acute pancreatitis and 24 patients with alcohol as a possible aetiology than in 20 patients with non-alcohol-induced disease.
33. Stone HH, Fabian TC, Dunlop VVE: Gallstone pancreatitis: biliary tract pathology in relation to time of operation. Ann Surg 1981, 194:305-310.
34. Kelly TR, Wagner DS: Gallstone pancreatitis: a prospective randomised trial of timing of surgery. Surgery 1988, 104:600-605.
35. Nowak A, Nowakowska-Duzawa E, Rybicka J: Urgent endoscopic sphincterotomy vs conservative treatment in acute biliary pancreatitis - a prospective, controlled trial. Hepatogastroenterology 1990, 37(Suppl II):A5 (Abstract).
36. Fan ST, Lai CS, Mok FPT, Lo CM, Rheng SS, Wong J: Early treatment of acute biliary pancreatitis by endoscopic papillotomy. New Engl J Med 1993, 328:228-232. One hundred and ninety-five patients (127 of whom turned out to have gallstones) were randomized to receive either urgent ERCP (within 24 hours of admission) or conservative treatment. There was a reduction in biliary sepsis but no difference in complications or the mortality rate between the two groups.
37. Fan ST, Choi TK, Lai ECS, Wong J: Prediction of severity of acute pancreatitis: an alternative approach. Gut 1989, 30:1591-1595. Two hundred and three patients with acute pancreatitis were analysed to see if there was a simpler way of predicting severity. Data were collected prospectively and analysed retrospectively. A raised urea (> 7.4 mmol/l) and a raised glucose (>11 mmol/l) were found to correlate with a severe attack.
38. Fan ST, Lai CS, Mok FPT, Lo CM, Zheng SS, Wong J: Prediction of the severity of acute pancreatitis. Am J Surg 1993, 166:262-268. An attempt to further justify the Hong Kong criteria of severity in acute pancreatitis in a prospective study. There is a highly detailed analysis with the Imrie, Ranson and APACHE II scores which highlights important differences with the Hong Kong method. The reader could draw different conclusions from those of the authors.
39. Heath DI, Imrie CW: The Hong Kong criteria and severity prediction in acute pancreatitis. int J Pancreatol 1994, 15:179-185. Retrospective analysis of 125 consecutive patients was undertaken and a blood glucose of 11 mmol/l and blood urea of 7.4 mmol/l were able to detect a severe attack with a sensitvity of only 33% and specficity of 83%, suggesting the Hong Kong criteria were not as good as originally reported.
40. Fölsch UR, Nitsche R, Lüdtke R, Hilgers RA, Creutzfeldt W, German Study Group of Acute Biliary Pancreatitis: Controlled randomised multicentre trial of urgent endoscopic papillotomy for acute biliary pancreatitis [abstract]. Gastroenterology 1995, 108(Suppl):A353.
41. Neoptolemos JP, Carr-Locke DL, London N, Bailey I, Fossard DP: ERCP findings and the role of endoscopic sphincterotomy in acute gallstone pancreatitis. Br J Surg 1988, 75:954-960.
42. Sainio V, Kemppainen E, Puolakkainen P, Taavitsainen M, Kivisaari L, Valtonen V, et al.: Early antibiotic treatment in acute necrotising pancreatitis. Lancet 1995, 346:663-667.
43. Kelly TR: Gallstone pancreatitis: the timing of surgery. Surgery 1980, 88:345-349.
44. Osborne DH, Imrie CW, Carter DC: Biliary surgery in the same admission for gallstone-associated acute pancreatitis. Br J Surg 1981, 68:758-761.
45. Ranson JHC: The timing of biliary surgery in acute pancreatitis. Ann Surg 1979, 189:654-662.
46. Tang E, Stain SC, Tang G, Froes E, Berne TV: Timing of laparoscopic surgery in gallstone pancreatitis. Arch Surg 1995, 130:496-500. A study confirming that urgent laparoscopic cholecystectomy, like open cholecystectomy for acute pancreatitis, is associated with an increased complication rate and a longer hospital stay in those patients who have severe disease.
47. Canal DF, Broadie TA: Results of laparoscopic cholecystectomy for the treatment of gallstone pancreatitis. Am Surg 1994, 60:495-499.
48. Graham LD, Burrus RG, Burns RP, Chandler KE, Barker DE: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in biliary pancreatitis. Am Surg 1994, 60:40-43.
49. Perissat J, Huibregtse K, Keane FBV, Russell RCG, Neoptolemos JP: Management of bile duct stones in the era of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Br J Surg 1994, 81:799-810.
50. Trus TL, Hunter JG: Laparoscopic bile duct techniques. Semin Laparosc Surg 1995, 2:118-127.
51. de Virgilio C, Verbin C, Chang L, Linder S, Stabile BE, Klein S: Gallstone pancreatitis: the role of preoperative endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Arch Surg 1994, 129:909-913. This study shows that preoperative ERCP can be confined to those patients with a risk of common bile duct stones on clinical and biochemical criteria.
52. Rijna H, Borgstein PJ, Meuwissen SGM, de Brauw LM, Wildenborg NP, Cuesta MA: Selective preoperative endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in laparoscopic biliary surgery. Br J Surg 1995, 82:1130-1133. Another study in 699 patients with symptomatic gallstones arguing that preoperative ERCP should be reserved for only those with cholangitis, persistent jaundice or gallstone acute pancreatitis.
53. Welbourn CRB, Beckly DE, Eyre-Brook IA: Endoscopic sphincterotomy without cholecystectomy for gallstone pancreatitis. Gut 1995, 37:119-120. Fifty-one patients with gallstone-induced acute pancreatitis underwent sphincterotomy without cholecystectomy. The sphincterotomy was successful in 48 patients and none had a recurrence of their pancreatitis. Three patients had incomplete sphincterotomy and two developed recurrent pancreatitis, suggesting that, if technically successful, sphincterotomy is an acceptable way of preventing recurrent attacks of gallstone pancreatitis.
54. Winslet MC, Neoptolemos JP: The place of endoscopy in the management of gallstones. Clin Gastroenterol 1991, 5:99-129.
55. Andrew DJ, Johnson SE: Acute suppurative cholangitis, a medical and surgical emergency. Am J Gastroenterol 1970, 54:141-154.
56. Ong GB, Lakn KH, Lam SK, Lim TK, Wong J: Acute pancreatitis in Hong Kong. Br J Surg 1979, 66:398-403.
57. McMahon MJ, Mayer AD, Shearer MG, Corfield AD, Cooper MJ, Imrie CW, Williamson RCN: Cholangitis and acute pancreatitis [abstract]. Gut 1985, 26:A648.
58. Neoptolemos JP, Carr-Locke DL, Leese T, James D: Acute cholangitis in association with acute pancreatitis: incidence, clinical features and outcome in relation to ERCP findings and endoscopic sphincterotomy. Br J Surg 1987, 74:1103-1106.
59. Nowak A, Dzlurkowska-Marek A, Nowakowska-Dulawa E, Marek A, Kaczor R: Does acute biliary pancreatitis (ABP) worsen the results of urgent endoscopic treatment of acute obstructive cholangitis (AOC) [abstract]? 10th World Congress ot Gastroenterology:68EC.
60. Davison BR, Neoptolemos JP, Carr-Locke DL: Endoscopic sphincterotomy for common bile duct calculi in patients with gallbladder in situ considered unfit for surgery. Gut 1988, 29:114-120.
61. Shemesh E, Czerniak A, Schneabaum S, Nass S: Early endoscopic sphincterotomy in the management of acute gallstone pancreatitis in elderly patients. J Am Geriat Soc 1990, 38:893-896.
62. Hill J, Martin DF, Tweedie DEF: Risks of leaving the gallbladder in situ after endoscopic sphincterotomy for bile duct stones. Br J Surg 1991, 78:554-557.
63. Nowak A, Blaszczynska M, Nowakowska-Dulaw AE, Marek TA: Endoscopic sphincterotomy applied for acute biliary pancreatitis prevents further attacks of this disease. A prospective follow-up study [abstract]. 10th World Congress of Gastroenterology, 1994.
64. Uomo G, Manes G, Laccetti M, Rabitti PG: Endoscopic treatment of acute biliary pancreatitis in pregnancy. J Clin Gastroenterol 1994, 89:1109-1110.