Gong DF, Cheng L. Efficacy and safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the treatment of bile duct stones. World J Gastrointest Surg 2025; 17(9): 109270 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.109270]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Long Cheng, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The First People’s Hospital of Changde, No. 818 Renmin Road, Changde 415000, Hunan Province, China. cdchenglong2024@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2025; 17(9): 109270 Published online Sep 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.109270
Efficacy and safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the treatment of bile duct stones
Dan-Feng Gong, Long Cheng
Dan-Feng Gong, Long Cheng, Department of Gastroenterology, The First People’s Hospital of Changde, Changde 415000, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: Gong DF and Cheng L contributed to conception, design, manuscript drafting and editing, collection, assembly and analysis of data, and resources; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethic Committee of The First People’s Hospital of Changde.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study due to the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Long Cheng, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The First People’s Hospital of Changde, No. 818 Renmin Road, Changde 415000, Hunan Province, China. cdchenglong2024@163.com
Received: May 16, 2025 Revised: June 12, 2025 Accepted: July 14, 2025 Published online: September 27, 2025 Processing time: 130 Days and 23.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The current surgical treatments for bile duct stones (BDSs) demonstrate suboptimal efficacy, warranting further exploration of superior therapies or improvement of existing surgical protocols.
AIM
To assess the therapeutic efficacy and safety profiles of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) vs common bile duct exploration (CBDE) in BDS treatment.
METHODS
This study enrolled 103 consecutive patients with BDSs treated at the First People’s Hospital of Changde from January 2024 to January 2025, with 53 patients undergoing ERCP (ERCP group) and 50 receiving conventional CBDE (CBDE group). Comprehensive comparative analyses were conducted across multiple parameters, including clinical efficacy, surgical success rate, safety (bile leakage incidence, surgical site infection, acute pancreatitis, and acute cholangitis), postoperative biochemical markers (total bilirubin and serum amylase), surgery-related metrics (stone removal time, procedure duration, intraoperative blood loss, and hospitalization time), and postoperative recovery indicators (time to intestinal recovery, jaundice resolution, biliary drainage removal, and postoperative activity recovery).
RESULTS
The ERCP group demonstrated markedly superior overall efficacy than the CBDE group, with similar surgical success rates and comparable stone removal durations. Importantly, patients undergoing ERCP experienced fewer complications overall, required less operative time, had minimal intraoperative blood loss, and needed shorter hospitalization periods. Recovery parameters such as bowel function recovery, jaundice resolution, biliary stent removal, and normal activity resumption, were significantly improved in the ERCP group. Both groups demonstrated substantial postoperative reductions in total bilirubin and amylase, with no significant intergroup differences.
CONCLUSION
ERCP demonstrates effectiveness and safety in managing BDSs, thereby providing notable clinical benefits that support its broader implementation in medical practice.
Core Tip: The current research assessed the effectiveness and safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in treating bile duct stones and provided valuable evidence to guide clinical decision-making. We conducted a comprehensive analysis, including therapeutic effectiveness, procedural success rates, patient safety, postoperative biochemical parameters, surgery-related metrics, and recovery outcomes, to compare ERCP with conventional common bile duct exploration, thereby confirming ERCP’s clinical advantages in enhancing clinical outcomes, improving safety and procedural efficiency, and speeding up patient recovery.
