Safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in liver transplanted patients: A single-center retrospective study

The incidence rate of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography complication in liver transplanted patient has not been well studied. Some studies believed such patients inherit higher complication risk in ERCP procedure owing to innate structure deformity and coagulopathy condition. Our aim of this study is to evaluate the post-ERCP complications incidence in liver transplanted patients. All liver transplant patients (deceased donor and living-related donor) from January 2010 to December 2015 who underwent ERCP procedure alone in Changhua Christian medical center hospital were retrospective evaluated. Data regarding post-ERCP complications, including pancreatitis, hemorrhage, perforation, and infection, are collected and analyzed. A total of 98 ERCP procedures were performed in 43 liver transplanted patients during 5-year period. The overall incidence rate of post ERCP complications was 13.27%. The most common complication was bleeding 6.12%, followed by pancreatitis 5.10%, perforation 2.04%, and cholangitis 1.02%. Among patients with post-ERCP hemorrhage, more than half of the patients had delay bleeding and required more than two times of endoscopic procedure. Differ from general ERCP complications, all of the perforation events were related to bile duct injury.