Ringer's Lactate Hydration and Incidence of Post ERCP Pancreatitis: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is one of the most frequently used treatment modality for various pancreatobiliary problems. Frequent complications of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography include pancreatitis, cholangitis, hemorrhage and perforation. This study was done to see the prevalence of post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis in patient aggressively hydrated with Ringer's Lactate solution.

A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out on patient undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography at Bharatpur Hospital from June 2018 to August 2020. Ethical clearance was taken from Institutional Review Committee Bharatpur Hospital (reference number 16/076/77). The convenient sampling method was applied. Data were collected and analyzed in statistical package for the social sciences version 16. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.

Pain abdomen was assessed using Visual Analogue Scale and it was found that 8.1% of patients (15 patients) complained of pain abdomen with visual analogue scale> 3. Serum amylase was sent only in those patients who complained of pain abdomen and only in three patients (1.6%) serum amylase was increased more than 3 times the upper limit of normal value suggestive of pancreatitis. All three patients who had pancreatitis had precut sphincterotomy.

In this study we found that incidence of pancreatitis slumped after aggressive hydration with Ringer's lactate solution and adjunct use of other prophylactic measures for prevention of post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis might yield further better results.