Published online Nov 16, 2018. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v10.i11.354
Peer-review started: February 28, 2018
First decision: July 9, 2018
Revised: July 17, 2018
Accepted: August 21, 2018
Article in press: August 21, 2018
Published online: November 16, 2018
Processing time: 154 Days and 16 Hours
Patients with cirrhosis undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) are believed to have increased risks. However, there is a paucity of literature describing the indications and outcomes of ERCP procedures in patients with cirrhosis, especially focusing on adverse events.
ERCP is one of the most commonly performed endoscopic procedures and is known for its high-risk nature. Performing ERCP in patients with cirrhosis is not only challenging, but may even be a high-risk endeavor in this setting. There was therefore a need for a meta-analysis to estimate adverse events associated with ERCP in cirrhosis patients.
To assess the adverse events associated with ERCP in cirrhosis patients.
The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses statement and the meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology guidelines were followed. The overall proportion of patients experiencing any post-procedure adverse events or experiencing specific complications were estimated using random effects methods designed for the pooling of proportions. The actual proportions were estimated after the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation had been applied to the individual study proportions and standard errors were calculated using the scoring method.
Individual adverse events included hemorrhage in 4.58% (95%CI: 2.77-6.75%, I2 = 85.9%), post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) in 3.68% (95%CI: 1.83-6.00%, I2 = 89.5%), cholangitis in 1.93% (95%CI: 0.63-3.71%, I2 = 87.1%) and perforation in 0.00% (95%CI: 0.00-0.23%, I2 = 37.8%).
There is an overall higher rate of adverse events related to ERCP in patients with cirrhosis, especially hemorrhage and PEP.
In the future, a thorough risk/benefit assessment should be performed in cirrhosis patients prior to ERCP.