Endoscopic pancreaticobiliary drainage with overlength stents to prevent delayed perforation after endoscopic papillectomy: A pilot study

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic papillectomy (EP) is rapidly replacing traditional surgical resection and is a less invasive procedure for the treatment of duodenal papillary tumors in selected patients. With the expansion of indications, concerns regarding EP include not only technical difficulties, but also the risk of complications, especially delayed duodenal perforation. Delayed perforation after EP is a rare but fatal complication. Exposure of the artificial ulcer to bile and pancreatic juice is considered to be one of the causes of delayed perforation after EP. Draining bile and pancreatic juice away from the wound may help to prevent delayed perforation. AIM: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of placing overlength biliary and pancreatic stents after EP. METHODS: This is a single-center, retrospective study. Five patients with exposure or injury of the muscularis propria after EP were included. A 7-Fr overlength biliary stent and a 7-Fr overlength pancreatic stent, modified by an endoscopic nasobiliary drainage tube, were placed in the common bile duct and pancreatic duct, respectively, and the bile and pancreatic juice were drained to the proximal jejunum. RESULTS: EP and overlength stents placement were technically feasible in all five patients (63 ± 12 years), with an average operative time of 63.0 ± 5.6 min. Of the five lesions (median size 20 mm, range 15-35 mm), four achieved en bloc excision and curative resection. The final histopathological diagnoses of the endoscopic specimen were one tubular adenoma with high-grade dysplasia (HGD), one tubulovillous adenoma with low-grade dysplasia, one hamartomatous polyp with HGD, one poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and one atypical juvenile polyposis with tubulovillous adenoma, HGD and field cancerization invading the muscularis mucosae and submucosa. There were no stent-related complications, but one papillectomy-related complication (mild acute pancreatitis) occurred without any episodes of bleeding, perforation, cholangitis or late-onset duct stenosis. CONCLUSION: For patients with exposure or injury of the muscularis propria after EP, the placement of overlength biliary and pancreatic stents is a feasible and useful technique to prevent delayed perforation.