Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. Dec 5, 2018; 9(6): 47-54
Published online Dec 5, 2018. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v9.i6.47
Endoscopic ultrasound guided gallbladder drainage - is it ready for prime time?
Umesha Boregowda, Chandraprakash Umapathy, Arpitha Nanjappa, Helen Wong, Madhav Desai, Marina Roytman, Thimmaiah Theethira, Shreyas Saligram
Umesha Boregowda, Chandraprakash Umapathy, Arpitha Nanjappa, Marina Roytman, Thimmaiah Theethira, Shreyas Saligram, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California San Francisco, Fresno, CA 93721, United States
Helen Wong, Shreyas Saligram, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Central California Healthcare System, Fresno, CA 93703, United States
Madhav Desai, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160, United States
Author contributions: Boregowda U and Saligram S designed the article, acquisition and interpretation of data; Boregowda U, Umapathy C, Nanjappa A, Desai M drafted the article; Wong H, Theethira T, Roytman M made critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; Saligram S made critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; and final approved the version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Shreyas Saligram, MD, MRCP, Assistant Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California San Francisco, 2823 Fresno Street, Endoscopy Suite, 1st Floor, Fresno, CA 93721, United States. ssaligram@fresno.ucsf.edu
Telephone: +1-559-4593821 Fax: +1-559-4593887
Received: October 9, 2018
Peer-review started: October 9, 2018
First decision: October 22, 2018
Revised: October 28, 2018
Accepted: November 15, 2018
Article in press: November 15, 2018
Published online: December 5, 2018
Processing time: 57 Days and 23.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Acute cholecystitis can be a medical emergency if not treated. The definitive treatment for it is cholecystectomy. However, some patients are not surgically fit and will need to be managed conservatively. Endoscopic ultrasound guided gall bladder drainage is a novel technique and is a means to manage these patients conservatively either as a bridge to surgery until they become surgically fit or a long term management. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this technique as an alternative to other known conservative measures.