Prolonged retention of prophylactic pancreatic stents is not associated with increased complications

The risk of post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) can be reduced effectively by the placement of a self dislodging pancreatic stent. The present study analyzed whether a prolonged interval until stent passage evaluation and removal of retained stents is associated with an increased risk for clinically relevant complications.

In the retrospective study 182 patients receiving a pancreatic stent for PEP prophylaxis were included and clinical data and complications until documented spontaneous stent dislodgement or removal were analyzed.

The main indication for ERCP was choledocholithiasis (40.1%) followed by malignant stenosis (30.8%). Stent passage evaluation was performed in 34.1% at day 1-4, 23.6% at day 5-10, 17.6% at day 11-28 and 24.7% at day >28. PEP occurred in 13.1% of patients with no case of severe PEP. No association between PEP and day of stent passage evaluation (p = 0.719), retention of the pancreatic stent at time of evaluation (0.867) or prolonged stent retention >10 days (0.234) was observed. Only the duration of the procedure was associated with risk for PEP (p = 0.037). Besides PEP only one clinically relevant complication was observed in the cohort (0.5%) which was a late possibly stent related pancreatitis at day 9 after the procedure that resolved completely.

A prolonged interval for stent passage evaluation and stent retention is not associated with an increase of clinically relevant complications. A later evaluation and extraction of retained stents might be acceptable in selected cases where an additional endoscopic procedure can be saved due to a planned follow-up endoscopy.