Wire-guided cannulation over a pancreatic stent method increases the need for needle-knife precutting ın patients with difficult biliary cannulations

Background and Aims Cannulation of the major papilla can be problematic, and selective biliary cannulation may fail in up to 18% of cases. Various techniques, such as double-guidewire technique (DGWT), wire-guided cannulation over a pancreatic stent (WGC-PS), the precut endoscopic sphincterotomy (needle-knife precutting technique (NKP), and transpancreatic septostomy have been used to improve the success rate of biliary cannulation. We conducted a prospective, randomized study in order to compare the biliary cannulation success rates of DGWT and WGC-PS techniques in patients with inadvertent passage of guidewire to the pancreatic duct. Methods A total of 100 patients were included in the study and randomized to DGWT (n = 50) or WGC-PS (n = 50) groups. The primary outcome was successful selective cannulation, defined as deep cannulation with selective injection of radiographic contrast material into the common bile duct within 5 minutes by DGW or WGC-PS techniques without performing precut sphincterotomy. Results Successful selective cannulation was achieved in 45 patients in the DGWT group (90%) and in 27 patients in the WGC-PS group (54%) ( P P P  = 1.00). Conclusions In patients with unintentional passage of a guidewire into the pancreatic duct during biliary cannulation attempts, the WGC-PS technique significantly increased the need for NKP compared with DGWT.