Management of common bile duct stones in the absence of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography

Table 1 Characteristics of included studies

Ref.	Study design	Setting	n	Strategy evaluated	Key findings
Varone et al[14]	Multicenter retrospective	12 United States tertiary centers	736	MRCP vs EUS vs IOC	MRCP sensitivity 68.2%; EUS/IOC superior in intermediate-risk
Johnson et al[13]	Retrospective QI study	Single tertiary center	87	LCBDE vs ERCP + LC	LCBDE LOS 2 days vs ERCP 4.5 days; 37% missed opportunities
Anwar et al[17]	Retrospective + prospective cohort	University hospital	100	One-stage LCBDE vs two-stage ERCP + LC	Comparable clearance; lower cost in one-stage
Volkovetskii et al[16]	Retrospective comparative	Tertiary center	136	LCBDE vs ERCP	Clearance 986% vs 90.8%; lower pancreatitis with LCBDE
Cui et al[15]	Diagnostic retrospective	Tertiary	269	EUS vs MRCP	EUS superior in intermediate-risk
Wever et al[18]	Retrospective case series	Rural community hospital	69	Transcystic LCBDE	Clearance 82%; 0% major complications
McNamee et al[19]	Retrospective comparative	Community hospital		LCBDE vs ERCP	Demonstrates feasibility of LCBDE in non-tertiary setting

LCBDE: Laparoscopic common bile duct exploration; ERCP: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography; EUS: Endoscopic ultrasound; MRCP: Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography; LC: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy; IOC: Intraoperative cholangiography.