Gall Bladder Drainage for Acute Cholecystitis in Surgically Unfit Patients: Endoscopic Ultrasound Guided Transmural Drainage or Endoscopic Transpapillary Drainage!

Abstract

AbstractAcute cholecystitis (AC) is a potentially serious condition that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice of AC in surgically fit candidates. However, high-risk surgical patients with AC are a therapeutic dilemma. Various alternative treatment options available include percutaneous transhepatic cholecystostomy (PTC), endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided gall bladder (GB) drainage or endoscopic transpapillary drainage of GB. Due to higher complication, unplanned hospital readmission rate, risk of tube dislodgement, and high risk of recurrent acute cholecystitis associated with PTC, endoscopic drainage GB is the preferred, minimally invasive treatment option. Both endoscopic transpapillary GB drainage as well as EUS-guided transmural drainage of GB are effective GB drainage options, but both of them have not been compared in terms of their efficacy and safety. In this news and views, we have discussed two interesting articles which have compared EUS-guided GB drainage and endoscopic transpapillary drainage.