Novel technique using pancreatic duct stent facilitates difficult biliary cannulation in patients with Roux-en-Y...

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in patients with surgically altered gastrointestinal anatomy has been reported to be useful. However, selective biliary cannulation through the papilla is difficult in cases with surgically altered gastrointestinal anatomy. Herein, we report a successful biliary cannulation using a pancreatic duct (PD) stent in patients with Roux-en-Y anatomy. A 70-year-old man who underwent total gastrectomy with Roux-en-Y anatomy was admitted to our hospital with jaundice due to recurrence of gastric cancer. ERCP was performed for biliary drainage. We approached the papilla using a short-type single-balloon enteroscope (SIF-H290; Olympus Medical Systems). Because the papilla was positioned tangentially, it was difficult to adjust the catheter in the direction of the bile duct. As only a PD could be cannulated, we placed a guidewire in the PD. Although we attempted the double-guidewire technique using a guidewire placed in PD, selective biliary cannulation was difficult. Therefore, we placed a PD stent 5Fr-5cm (Geenen, Pancreatic Stent Sets, Cook Medical, Bloomington, IN, USA) to assist biliary cannulation. We inserted a catheter crossing the PD stent. With this, selective biliary cannulation was successful. We successfully performed selective biliary cannulation using the PD stent as we were able to fix the papilla, straighten the common channel and the axis of the bile duct, and not restrict scope movement by not using the PD guidewire placement method. This novel technique using a PD stent appears to be useful in patients with surgically altered gastrointestinal anatomy.