Can early precut reduce post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis in patients with difficult bile duct cannulation?

Table 1 Baseline characteristics and comparison of post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis incidence between needle-knife precut papillotomy cases and non-needle-knife precut papillotomy cases

Characteristic	NKPP, n = 294	Non-NKPP, n = 1262	P value
Age	75.5 ± 13.0	73.6 ± 13.4	0.016
Sex, male	159 (53.7)	690 (54.6)	0.80
Diagnosis			< 0.01
Benign	205 (69.3)	980 (77.6)
Malignancy	91 (30.7)	283 (22.4)
Diverticula	77 (26.0)	380 (30.1)	0.18
First endoscopist			0.050
Trainee, n = 903	156 (53.0)	747 (59.2)
Success rate of cannulation	283 (96.3)	1250 (99.0)	< 0.01
Cannulation time in min	20.3 ± 12.6	5.1 ± 7.2	< 0.01
Total procedure time in min	40.4 ± 16.0	29.7 ± 17.9	< 0.01
PEP	21 (7.1)	68 (5.4)	0.27

Data are n (%). NKPP: Needle-knife precut papillotomy; PEP: Post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis.