Incidence Rates of Post-ERCP Complications: A Systematic Survey of Prospective Studies

To provide health-care providers, patients, and physicians with an exhaustive assessment of prospective studies on rates of complications and fatalities associated with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).

We searched MEDLINE (1977-2006) for prospective surveys on adult patients undergoing ERCP. "Grey literature" was sought by looking at cited references to identify further relevant studies. Data on postprocedural pancreatitis, bleeding, infections, perforations, and miscellaneous events as well as their associated fatalities were extracted independently by two reviewers. Sensitivity analysis was performed to test for data consistency between multicenter versus single center studies, and old (1977-1996) versus recent (1997-2005) reports.