The Economic Impact of the Pancreatography in the Endoscopic Treatment of Pancreatic Pseudocysts

Pancreatic pseudocysts (PP) present as a complication that occurs in 5-15% of acute pancreatitis and 26-40% of chronic pancreatitis (1-3). To date the endoscopic drainage with endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has replace the surgical treatment due to the similar success and complication rate but with a lower cost and short hospital stay (4-6). Regarding recurrence, it is important to know the anatomy of the main pancreatic duct (MPD). For this purpose, the endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP) has been describe as a useful tool. In fact, many authors perform it before the endoscopic drainage while others wait several weeks after the drainage (7-9) with similar technical success (5,8). However, there are no studies that compare the technical difficulty and the total cost between these two approaches.