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Digital single-operator video cholangioscopy in treating refractory biliary stones: a multicenter observational study

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Abstract

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.

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Author notes

  1. Arne Bokemeyer and Christian Gerges contributed equally and are both considered first author.

  2. Frank Lenze and Torsten Beyna contributed equally and are both considered last author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine B for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Arne Bokemeyer, Dominik Bettenworth, Iyad Kabar, Hartmut Schmidt, Hansjoerg Ullerich & Frank Lenze

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Duesseldorf, Kirchfeldstrasse 40, 40217, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Christian Gerges, Diana Lang, Horst Neuhaus & Torsten Beyna

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  1. Arne Bokemeyer
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  2. Christian Gerges
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  8. Hansjoerg Ullerich
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Torsten Beyna.

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Disclosures

Diana Lang and Drs. Arne Bokemeyer, Christian Gerges, Iyad Kabar and Frank Lenze as well as Prof. Dr. Dominik Bettenworth and Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schmidt have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose. The following authors disclosed financial relationships relevant to this manuscript: Dr. Hansjoerg Ullerich received honoraria for lectures from Falk Foundation; Dr. Torsten Beyna received honoraria for consultancy and lectures from Boston Scientific and Olympus; Prof. Dr. Horst Neuhaus received honoraria for consultancy and lectures from Boston Scientific and Olympus.

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Bokemeyer, A., Gerges, C., Lang, D. et al. Digital single-operator video cholangioscopy in treating refractory biliary stones: a multicenter observational study. Surg Endosc 34, 1914–1922 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-019-06962-0

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