Treatment of gallstone pancreatitis: six-year experience in a single center

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a complicated disease in 20% to 25% of cases and carries a mortality of 8% to 15%. Etiologically, the most frequent form is acute biliary pancreatitis. Treatment of such an entity is still controversial, but minimally invasive techniques undoubtedly play an important role. We retrospectively analyze our cases of AP observed from January 1992 to May 1998. Etiology was biliary in 95/125 (76%) cases. In 90 cases we evaluated the patient within a few hours of the onset of symptoms. According to the Ranson criteria, we observed a mild form in 74/90 (82.2%) cases and a severe form in 16/90 (17.8%) cases. Our standard policy was to perform urgent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with endoscopic sphincterotomy followed by elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. In particular clinical settings, other modalities of treatment were employed, such as percutaneous cholecystostomy and percutaneous drainage of fluid collections. Successful ERCP was performed in 86/90 cases (95.5%). The procedure was performed in an emergency setting (within 48 hours) in 62/90 cases (68.9%). Whenever the patient was a candidate for surgery, cholecystectomy was performed, laparoscopically in 67/90 cases (74.4%) and via laparotomy in 7/90 cases (7.8%). In only two cases was pancreatic necrosectomy necessary. Globally, we observed a low procedure-related morbidity (6.7%) and no mortality. In the setting of acute biliary pancreatitis, regardless of the severity of the attack, an urgent ERCP + endoscopic sphincterotomy followed by laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and could enable successful management of the patient. Associated morbidity and mortality were low. In addition, when indicated, it is possible to treat a great number of concomitant complications with percutaneous ultrasound-guided drainage.