Outcomes of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a nationwide study.

Purpose: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) has become a commonly utilized procedure for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. There is a paucity of data for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who undergo ERCP. The aim of this study is to examine the indications, complications, and inpatient outcomes of patients with IBD undergoing ERCP.

Methods: For this retrospective cohort study, we utilized the National Inpatient Sample database for the years 2018-2019. We compared potential indications, outcomes, ERCP-related procedures, and resource utilization in patients who underwent ERCP and had a diagnosis of IBD to that of patients who underwent ERCP without a diagnosis of IBD. We utilized a multivariate regression model that accounted for several potential confounders.

Results: We identified 318,590 ERCP procedures. Among them, 3625 ERCP procedures were performed in patients with an associated diagnosis of IBD. Patients with IBD who underwent ERCP had higher odds of acute kidney injury (aOR 1.27; 95% CI: 1.01-1.60) and sepsis (aOR 1.33; 95% CI: 1.07-1.67) compared to patients without IBD. However, inpatient mortality and other complications were not statistically different between the two groups. Patients with IBD were also less likely to undergo biliary sphincterotomy (aOR 0.75; 95% CI: 0.62-0.88) but there were no other differences in performance of ERCP-related therapeutic interventions between the two groups. Adjusted costs and charges were not statistically different between the two groups.

Conclusion: Our study shows that ERCP is, overall, a safe procedure in patients with IBD, as inpatient morbidity and mortality are similar to patients without IBD.