Evaluating ERCP is important but difficult.
ERCP is a valuable technique now practised widely throughout the world. It revolutionised the diagnosis and management of benign and malignant biliary and pancreatic diseases in the 1970s and 1980s. However, recent developments have highlighted the need for detailed evaluation of current ERCP practice. This review is based on a presentation to a recent NIH "state of the science" conference on ERCP, and refers to an article which appears in this issue of Gut from researchers in Hong Kong who report on a randomised controlled trial of endoscopic sphincterotomy in acute cholangitis.
Digestive Disease Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, 29425, USA. cottonp@musc.edu
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D001660:Biliary Tract Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002760:Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde; D006801:Humans; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014481:United States