Clinical Research Directory

Real-world Evaluation of Different Endoscopic Biliary Drainage Techniques in Patients With Jaundice of Biliopancreatic Malignant Origin

The incidence of pancreatic cancer is rising. Tumor-induced obstruction of the distal bile duct is a common complication, occurring during the course of nearly 80% of pancreatic tumors. Approximately 10% of these obstructions are complicated by cholangitis, and jaundice is associated with tumor progression due to the resulting impairment of cellular immunity. The standard treatment for distal bile duct obstruction is transpapillary drainage via endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). This procedure is performed under general anesthesia and carries a failure rate of 15% and a complication rate of up to 9%. In recent years, alternative techniques for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided biliary drainage have been developed, such as hepaticogastrostomy, choledochoduodenostomy, and cholecystogastrostomy. These EUS-guided biliary drainage techniques overcome failures caused by malignant duodenal stenosis (present in up to 25% of such cases), with lower morbidity and greater clinical efficacy compared to percutaneous radiological drainage. EUS-guided biliary drainage techniques have been simplified by the advent of lumen-apposing metal stents (LAMS), which have enabled technical success rates of nearly 90%. The two techniques most frequently described in the literature are choledochoduodenostomy (CDS)-connecting the common bile duct to the duodenal bulb-and hepaticogastrostomy (HGS)-connecting the left intrahepatic bile ducts to the stomach. CDS is less morbid and technically easier to perform but has limitations in cases of duodenal stenosis, an insufficiently dilated common bile duct, or an unfavorable puncture window. For a long time, endoscopic gallbladder drainage via cholecystogastrostomy (CGS) was restricted to treating acute cholecystitis in patients ineligible for surgery; its use for biliary drainage in cases of malignant jaundice remained anecdotal, for reasons that were not clearly identified. The investigators were the first to publish a multicenter comparative study contrasting CGS with CDS following failed ERCP for distal malignant biliary obstruction. This study demonstrated comparable technical and clinical success rates for both techniques, with a better long-term morbidity profile favoring CGS. More recently, a large-scale international multicenter study validated the efficacy of gallbladder drainage compared to common bile duct drainage as a first-line approach. The study team previously launched the COPPINE cohort (Prospective Cohort of Innovative Endoscopic Procedures) in 2024, aiming to continuously enroll all patients undergoing innovative endoscopic procedures, including endoscopic ultrasound-guided biliary drainage. This study aims to prospectively compare the clinical outcomes of patients with malignant distal biliary obstruction based on the biliary drainage technique they received.

Nasojejunal Feeding Versus Oral Feeding Following Endoscopic Drainage of Walled Off Pancreatic Necrosis

The goal of this randomized control trial is to assess whether nasojejunal feed is better than oral nutrition in patients who are undergoing endoscopic cystogastrostomy of walled off necrosis following acute pancreatitis. It will also try to answer, the incidence of infections and feed tolerance. The main question it tries to answer is 1. whether nasojejunl feed is better than oral feed in patients undergoing endoscopic cystogastrostomy in walled off necrosis following acute pancreatitis 2. How much infections they develop, whether they are able to tolerate the feed, weight gain and reintervention rates in each group

A RCT of Low MBO Drainage Strategies

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of EUS-BD compared with ERCP-BD in low biliary obstruction caused by periampullary cancer, pancreatic cancer or low bile duct cancer. This is a single center, prospective, randomized-controlled study. The primary endpoint of this study is stent patency time, and secondary endpoints include technical success rate, clinical success rate, operation time, operation related complications rate, reintervention rate, stent patency rate at 6 months, and 1-year postoperative survival rate.