Rates of success and complication in diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP - a prospective study

The aim of the prospective study was to evaluated the efficacy and the comp lications of 2,820 ERCP-examinations in 1,717 consecutive patients (perform ed over a three-year period). The rate of success was 82.8% for diagnostic ERCP, 96.6% for endoscopic: sphincterotomy, 76.8% for the extraction of sto nes on common bile tract, 87.5% for drainage in bile tract obstruction, res pectively. The rate of all complications amounted to 7.9% (4.9% diagnostic ERCP, 9.2% therapeutic ERCP, in detail: 3.8% acute pancreatitis, 2.1% chola ngitis, 1.3% bleeding, 0.2% perforation, 0.5% other respectively). The tota l mortality was 0.1% (three cases of death). The frequency of complications increased with the number of procedure at the papilla Vateri in patients? who underwent needle knife papillotomy in combination with standard papillo tomy.