What is the procedure of ERCP and PTC?
There are
often some cases where the pancreatic cancer may cover the bile duct and this
can cause jaundice. In order to prevent that, the doctors try to put a stent in
the bile duct.
This is
also known as the endoscopic biliary
stenting and the procedure through which the stent is inserted is known as
the ERCP. Here a tube is used which has a camera in the end and this is
inserted to a patient’s body through the throat.
But before
the ERCP is done, the patient must tell the doctor that if they are taking any
kind of medicines like the ones which are blood thinners or some medicines
regarding diabetes. Then the doctors canadvise how to
take these medicines before the procedure.
The patient
will be asked not to drink or eat anything for at least 6 hours before the
procedure but yes one can have very small sips of water from 2 hours before the
procedure. This is done only to make sure that the stomach and the duodenum
both are empty. The patient is put on a sedative before the stent goes in. This
makes the patient to relax a bit.
There is a
flexible tube which has both the light and camera at one end of it and it is
known as the endoscope. This is the thing that is out through the patient’s
mouth and then passed down to the stomach and the camera that is attached to it
gets some screen shots of the interior of the human body. Then the stent goes
inside the bile duct with the help of a small wire and when it reaches the
right position then the wire is removed. The stent must unblock the bile duct
and then it will start draining normally. This entire process takes around half
an hour to 40 minutes to complete.
There are
some people who are not able to put the stent with the help of ERCP. For them
there is a different method. One has to go through a PTC where the stent is
passed through the wall of tummy and the liver. Then it is inserted into a bile
duct with the help of a needle. This process is very common when the blockage
is there on the upper portion of the bile duct which is near the liver.
The PTC
needle which is used here is guided with the help of the X ray pictures on the
computer screen. A particular dye is injected in the needle so that the
blockage can become prominent on the screen. Then the wire is put on the needed
and then the stent is placed in the position.
Once the
entire procedure is done, then a blood test is done by the doctors to make sure
whether there are any inflammations in the pancreas or not. These days’ plastic biliary stents
are also used instead of metal stents because they are less hazardous and they
are also easy to insert.
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