The role of endoscopy registries in quality health care The first data from the Hungarian Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) Registry

Introduction: The continuous monitoring of quality indicators in gastrointestinal endoscopy has become an essential requirement nowadays. Most of these data cannot be extracted from the currently used free text reports, therefore a structured web-based data-collecting system was developed to record the indicators of pancreatobiliary endoscopy. Aim: A structured data-collecting system, the ERCP Registry, was initiated to monitor endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) examinations prospectively, and to verify its usability. Method: From January 2017, all ERCPs performed at the First Department of Medicine, University of Pecs, have been registered in the database. In the first year, the detailed data of 595 examinations were entered into the registry. After processing these data, the testing period of the registry is now finished. Results: On 447 patients, 595 ERCPs were performed. The success rate of cannulation is 93.8% if all cases are considered. Difficult biliary access was noted in 32.1% of patients with native papilla, and successful cannulation was achieved in 81.0% of these cases during the first procedure. Post-ERCP pancreatitis was observed in 13 cases (2.2%), clinically significant post-papillotomy bleeding was registered in 2 cases (0.3%), while 27 patients (4.5%) developed temporary hypoxia during the procedure. 30-day follow-up was successful in 75.5% of the cases to detect late complications. All of the quality indicators determined by the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) were possible to monitor with the help of the registry. Our center already complies with most of these criteria. Conclusions: Continuous monitoring of the quality indicators of endoscopic interventions are not supported by the current hospital information system but it became possible with our registry. The ERCP Registry is a suitable tool to detect the quality of patient care and also useful for clinical research. Several endoscopy units have joined already this initiative and it is open for further centres through our web page (https://tm-centre.org/hu/regiszterek/ercpregiszter/).