Study of Effectiveness of Thoracic Epidural Analgesia for the Prevention of Acute Pancreatitis After ERCP Procedures

For 40 years, the post-ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) pancreatitis has been the most frequent adverse effect of endoscopic transpapillary interventions. We sought to determine the efficacy of thoracic epidural analgesia for the prevention of post-ERCP pancreatitis. Between 2008 and 2013, a randomized study of the results of endoscopic treatment of 491 patients was conducted. The first group of patients (N=247) received thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) during ERCP procedures, the patients of the second group (N=244) received a narcotic analgesic. To detect statistically significant differences between research groups adjusted odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.