Relationship between stent characteristics and treatment outcomes in endoscopic transmural drainage of uncomplicated pancreatic pseudocysts

Transmural stents are placed at endoscopy to drain pancreatic fluid collections. This study evaluated the relationship between stent placement and treatment outcomes in patients undergoing endoscopic transmural drainage of uncomplicated pancreatic pseudocysts.

This is a retrospective study of all patients who underwent endoscopic drainage of uncomplicated pancreatic pseudocysts over a 10-year period. After dilating the transmural tracts in the range of 8–15 mm, single or multiple, 7 or 10Fr double-pigtail plastic stents were deployed. The main outcome measure was to evaluate the relationship between stent characteristics and the number of endoscopic interventions required to achieve resolution of the pancreatic pseudocyst (treatment success).

Of 122 patients, 45 (36.9 %) had 10Fr stents of which 30 patients (66.7 %) had more than one stent; the remaining 77 (63.1 %) patients had 7Fr stents of which 56 (72.7 %) had more than one stent. The overall treatment success was 94.3 %. Treatment was successful in 102 patients (83.6 %) with one intervention; 13 patients (10.7 %) required re-intervention for successful drainage and 7 patients (5.7 %) failed endoscopic treatment. There was no significant difference in the number of interventions required for treatment success between patients with 7 or 10Fr stents (one intervention required in 87.7 vs. 90.5 %, respectively; p = 0.766) and between patients with 1 or >1 stent (one intervention required in 88.9 vs. 88.6 %, respectively; p = 0.999). On multiple logistic regression analysis, the stent size (OR 1.54; 95 % CI 0.23–10.4) and number (OR 1.15; 95 % CI 0.25–5.25) were not associated with the number of interventions required for treatment success when adjusted for pseudocyst size, location, drainage modality, the presence or absence of pancreatic duct stent and luminal compression.

There appears to be no relationship between the number of interventions required for treatment success and stent characteristics in patients undergoing endoscopic transmural drainage of uncomplicated pancreatic pseudocysts.