The Incidence of Acute Pancreatitis After Device Assisted Enteroscopy: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The diagnosis of small bowel diseases is challenging and device assisted enteroscopy (DAE) is a technique for visualizing the entire small bowel. DAE is considered as a safe procedure and the reported rate of adverse events associated with DAE in the literature is low.

The present study tried to investigate the actual incidence of AP after DAE with a systematic review and meta-analysis of available relevant studies.

Studies were searched through the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library databases. The following data were extracted from all eligible studies: author, country, publication year, publication type, study design, type of DAE used, route of DAE, number of patients with AP after DAE, and number of patients with hyperamylasemia after DAE.A random-effects model with RStudio version 4.2.0 was performed in all analyses. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I² test. The risk of bias was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale criteria and the publication bias was assessed by the Egger test.

Twenty three studies involving a total of 11145 patients were included in the analysis. The overall, pooled AP rate after DAE was 1% (95% CI:0-1%). There was significant heterogeneity among the studies (I² = 65%; P < 0.01).The pooled AP rate was 1% (95% CI:0-2 %)in peroral route group. The pooled proportion of patients having hyperamylasemia after DAE was 29% (95% CI: 16-46%).Among the patients who had hyperamylasemia AP were identified in 2% (95% CI: 0-6%) of patients.

The incidence of AP after DAE is about 1%. Hyperamylasemia is a common change in the patients undergoing DAE and only 2% of the patients with hyperamylasemia present with AP.