ERCP and EPT: Italian experience

The use of endoscopy has had a satisfactory development in Italy and today at least 70% of Italian hospitals have a fiberscope. Most of the examinations performed are in the diagnosis of diseases of the oesophagus, stomach or duodenum, whilst only a small percentage are represented by coloscopy which is usually carried out in specialized units. One of the examinations, that is most rarely performed, is ERCP, even if some hospitals have a duodenoscope suitable for catheterization of the papilla of Vater. Regardless of the fact that the usefulness of this method has been recognized and that positive results are being reported from various centers throughout the world, ERCP in Italy is performed by very few endoscopists and only in very highly specialized centres. In Rome, for example, ERCP is performed only in our Centre of Digestive Endoscopy which furthermore has the only important experience in Italy in endoscopic papillo-sphincterotomy (EPT); this type of operation has, in fact, so far been carried out only in a very limited number of patients, in a few other endoscopy units.