A prospective randomized study of loop-tip versus straight-tip guidewire in wire-guided biliary cannulation.

Background: Wire-guided cannulation has been widely accepted as a useful technique for achieving selective biliary access because it has significantly increased the success rate of biliary cannulation compared with conventional contrast-assisted cannulation. Unlike conventional guidewires with a straight tip, a loop-tip guidewire (LGW) has a closed distal loop that may facilitate less traumatic access through the epithelial folds of the intra-duodenal biliary segments. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of a LGW with a straight-tip guidewire (SGW) in achieving successful selective biliary cannulation.