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Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
Make it clearer
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, or ERCP, brings together two things: an endoscopy, which means looking inside with a tube that has a camera, and fluoroscopy, which is X-ray imaging in motion. It is used mainly to treat, and sometimes to diagnose, problems of the bile ducts, which carry bile, and of the pancreatic duct.
The tube used is a duodenoscope, which looks off to the side, and it reaches the duodenum, the first stretch of the small intestine. That is where the papilla is, the mouth through which those ducts empty, and that is the way in. The ducts are reached through their natural opening into the intestine. Through that same route, contrast is injected, which outlines the ducts on the X-rays, and the treatments are done: removing stones or leaving a stent in place.
At first it was used to make a diagnosis. Today it is mainly therapeutic, and it is still the routine endoscopic procedure with the highest risk of complications.
In brief
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography combines endoscopy and fluoroscopy to treat, and sometimes diagnose, disorders of the bile ducts and the pancreatic duct.
A side-viewing duodenoscope cannulates the papilla in the duodenum; contrast injected there outlines the ducts, and stones are removed or stents are placed.
The ducts are reached through their natural opening into the intestine.
It began as a diagnostic study and is now mainly therapeutic; it carries the highest complication risk among the routine endoscopic procedures.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingEndoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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