History of Post-Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography Pancreatitis and Acute Pancreatitis as Risk Factors for Post-ERCP Pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: Previous pancreatitis is a definite patient-related risk factor for pancreatitis after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (post-ERCP pancreatitis: PEP). However, the effects of differences in the history of PEP and acute pancreatitis on the occurrence of PEP have not been fully investigated. We examined the relationship between previous PEP or previous acute pancreatitis and procedural factors associated with PEP.

METHODS: Clinical data on 1,334 consecutive patients undergoing ERCP between April 2006 and June 2010 were collected. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between PEP and the cannulation time (<15 min vs. ≥15 min) or total procedure time (<30 min vs. ≥30 min) according to previous pancreatitis (previous PEP: pPEP or previous acute pancreatitis: pAP), with adjustments for clinical characteristics.

RESULTS: Longer cannulation times (≥15 min) correlated with the occurrence of PEP in the pPEP group (OR=2.97; 95% CI=1.10 to 8.43, P=0.03) and in patients without previous pancreatitis (non-preP group) (OR=2.43; 95% CI=1.41 to 4.14, P= 0.002), but not in the pAP group (OR=2.78; 95% CI=0.50 to 22.42, P= 0.25). In contrast, longer procedure times correlated with the occurrence of PEP in the pAP group (OR=3.93; 95% CI=1.11 to 16.5, P= 0.03), but not in the pPEP group (OR=2.79; 95% CI=0.92 to 9.18, P= 0.068) or non-preP group (OR=0.71; 95% CI=0.39 to 1.24, P= 0.23).

CONCLUSIONS: A higher risk of PEP with previous PEP was associated with longer cannulation times, whereas a higher risk of PEP with previous acute pancreatitis was associated with longer procedure times.