Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in geriatric ages

Abstract

The cholangiopancratographic technique was introduced in February 2010 in the province of Matanzas, covering the cases with that indication, and attending to an important group of patients in geriatric age. The aim of the current work was describing the results of four years work with this procedure. For that, a cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out in patients older than 65 years who were studied at the Minimal Access Surgery service of the University Clinical Surgical Hospital “Comandante Faustino Pérez Hernández”, in the period February 2010-February 2015. The studied population was formed by 147 patients, fulfilling the inclusion criteria, with 157 informs of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Clinical and demographic variables, related to technical aspects, were analyzed. The outcomes were the following: the female gender predominated, with 51.7 %; the most frequently found age group was the one grouping patients aged 65-69 years, with 64.63 %. The cannulation effectiveness was 97.28 %, making pre-cut only in 5.59 % of the cases; the most frequent diagnosis was choledochal lithiasis (38.16 %) and 80.13 % required therapeutic intervention. Complications were in 7.48 % of the cases, and the most frequent one was acute cholangitis (3.40 %). Mortality was 1.36 %. The comparison with other studies allowed concluding that the outcomes are similar to the ones obtained in studies carried out in general populations, independently of age, being a secure procedure in geriatric ages. The endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is a tool of great diagnostic and therapeutic usefulness.