Endoscopic Nasobiliary Drainage Help to Prevent the Postoperative Complications of ERCP for Choledocholith Removal

Aims: In order to investigate the preventive effect of endoscopic nasobiliary drainage (ENBD) on the postoperative complications of ERCP with endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) for choledocholith. Methods: we collected 180 patients with choledocholith who received the treatment of ERCP for extracting stones between January 2007 and June 2009. All of the 180 patients were divided into two groups: the ENBD group which, including 80 patients, were placed with ENBD, and the control group, including the residual 100 patients, were not placed with ENBD. We measured the scrum amylase levels within 24 hours, before and after ERCP. Meanwhile, the incidences of hyperamylasemia, acute pancreatitis, cholangitis and sphincter of Oddi dysfunction (SOD) were observed after ERCP. Results: The ENBD group shown lower scrum amylase levels after ERCP (225.78±178.62 vs. 563.08±201.24, P<0.05) than control group, while not significant difference existed between these two groups (130.25±35.20 vs. 145.35±45.34, P>0.05) before ERCP. At the same time, ENBD group were found with less incidences of hyperamylasemia (5% vs. 18%, P<0.05), acute pancreatitis (2.5% vs. 8%, P<0.05) and SOD (5% vs. 20%, P<0.05), but not different in cholangitis (2.5% vs. 3%, P>0.05) than control group. Conclusion: Out results suggested that ENBD can prevent the complications of hyperamylasemia, acute pancreatitis and SOD after ERCP effectively.