Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided cholecystogastrostomy using a lumen-apposing metal stent as an alternative to extrahepatic bile duct drainage in pancreatic cancer with duodenal invasion

Abstract

Various approaches to biliary drainage, especially endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided drainage, have become commonly used as an alternative method for biliary decompression for malignant biliary obstruction. Occasionally, however, duodenal obstruction and non-dilated intrahepatic bile duct impede conventional EUS-guided biliary drainage. Herein, we describe a case of cholecystogastrostomy successfully carried out using a newly developed fully covered lumen-apposing self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS). EUS-guided cholecystogastrostomy should be considered an option for biliary decompression. This is a particularly ideal alternative if the patient has duodenal strictures with or without a duodenal metal stent and a non-dilated intrahepatic bile duct, which suggests the impossibility of choledochoduodenostomy and hepaticogastrostomy. Furthermore, the newly developed fully covered lumen-apposing SEMS seems ideal for EUS-guided cholecystoenterostomy.