Biliary spinchterotomy via ERCP - anyone had this done?

[BambinoBoo]

Hi everyone. Bit of background: had an abandoned lap chole in Nov due to inflamed gallbladder and dilated bile duct and referred to a different hospital. They ordered various tests to check for stones in the bile duct - CT, MRCP and EUS - and I finally got to see a consultant yesterday to discuss my treatment plan! They have evidence of a 6mm stone in the distal bile duct and a strong suggestion of a narrowing beneath that. The narrowing is really hard to see due to my natural anatomy, but they think it is scar tissue caused by the stone not being able to pass through, so it bobs up and down against the duct when the bile pushes past it which will have caused the scarring.

The consultant has said that he is going to perform a spinchterotomy which will cut a muscle at the bottom of the bile duct, then the stone can be pulled out and bile will flow freely thereafter. I'll then have my lap chole 6 weeks later. He explained the risks and percentages of complications which are pancreatitis, bleeding and infection. The pancreatitis freaked me out as I have managed to dodge anything really nasty up till now - although he thinks I probably had jaundice before the original op too just going by the symptoms I described, so I have been really bloody lucky as jaundice was totally dismissed by 2 nurses and my own GP who failed to even order bloods despite bilirubin showing in my urine! I digress. The consultant said pancreatitis is a very small risk anyway and more often happens to older people. He also said that they are going to biopsy the tissue of the stricture, which set alarm bells ringing, but again, he said he was confident that it wouldn't be anything sinister due to my age (38). I just wondered really if anyone had had this procedure done, and could offer any advice or reassurance. Sorry for the essay. Many thanks.

Hi Bambino, I spoke to you ages ago on a different thread.

I've been in the same boat as you but the other way around. I never did understand why he didn't remove your gall bladder whilst he was in there. Mine was infected but weep wail, when I finally got rid of it, I still had that awful pain. No one checked the bile duct and it was discovered that I must have had pancreatitis at the same time. No wonder I thought I was dying :o

My bile duct was completely blocked by four stones and these were finally removed by ERCP. The relief was immediate. I got the scary story about pancreatitis (umm, I already have it), bleeding etc., These days they have to tell you, I recently had a hip replacement and my God, the list of scary things that could finish you off there, I nearly backed out !!

The ERCP itself is done under sedation but you know nothing about it, next thing I knew I was back on the ward and felt fine. Try not to worry, it cured my Pancreatitis and the thing is if that stone of yours isn't removed chances are it will eventually block the bile duct and then you will get it, trust me you do not want to go there !!

Hi alwaysme I remember you too from another thread. The funny thing with me is that my gallbladder caused all the problems with the bile duct but my bile duct is now the primary concern. Oh well. I'm glad to hear that your ERCP went well. I am trying to stay off google, but I must admit when I did google it, I didn't see many horror stories so hopefully I'll be ok. By time I have my gallbladder out, it will be 8 or so months since my initial referral and I can't even imagine the relief I will feel. I felt like a weight had been lifted just getting a date for the ercp and knowing that 6 weeks later, my gallbladder will be out. I obviously need to get out more