Ex vivo comparison of electrocautery-enhanced delivery of lumen-apposing metal stents matching electrosurgical workstations during EUS-guided gallbladder drainage

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: EUS-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) has become one of the recommended treatments for patients with high-risk acute cholecystitis. However, the gallbladder reportedly collapsed due to bile leakage, which was a disadvantage that affects the surgical success rate. Different electrocautery-enhanced delivery of the lumen-apposing metal stents (ECE-LAMSs) using suitable power levels in electrosurgical workstations can increase the surgical success rate and reduce trauma. Therefore, we proposed the use of the ECE-LAMSs and electrosurgical workstations for the first time through ex vivo experiments to adjust the different power levels and select the most suitable electrosurgical power for each ECE-LAMS type. METHODS: We compared three types of ECE-LAMS (9Fr, 10.5Fr, and 10.8Fr) with three types of electrosurgical workstations during EUS-GBD. GBD was simulated ex vivo under the guidance of an ultrasound endoscope. We performed various power tests to elucidate the ideal electric power for different ECE-LAMS combined with the different types of electrosurgical workstations. RESULTS: For the 10.8Fr ECE-LAMS matched with the Martin, Erbe, and Olympus electrosurgical workstations, the ideal power levels were 200 W, 200 W, and 250W. For the 10.5Fr and 9Fr ECE-LAMS matched with the Martin, Erbe, and Olympus electrosurgical workstations, the ideal power levels were 150 W, 200 W, and 200 W. CONCLUSION: During the operations, due to low-power levels in the electrosurgical workstations increased the number of cuts, the EUS images were obviously unclear, which affected the success rates of the operations. We suggested different power levels for the different types of LAMS and their matching electrosurgical workstations, which can increase the surgical success rates and reduce surgical injuries.