Study protocol for endoscopic ultrasonography-guided ethanol injection therapy for patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm: a multicentre prospective study

Introduction The management of small pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PNENs) remains controversial. The standard treatment for PNENs is surgical resection; however, invasiveness of surgical procedure remains higher and the incidence of postoperative adverse events is still high. Recently, the efficacy and safety of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided ethanol injection for small PNENs has been preliminarily demonstrated. Thus, a multicentre prospective study is being conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of EUS-guided ethanol injection therapy for small PNENs. Methods and analysis The major eligibility criteria are the presence of pathologically diagnosed grade (G) 1 tumour, a tumour size of <= 15 mm and non-functional PNEN or insulinoma. For treatment, we will use a 25-gauge needle and pure ethanol. Contrast-enhanced CT (CE-CT) will be performed on postoperative day 3-5, and if enhanced areas of the tumour are still apparent, an additional session is scheduled during the same hospitalisation period. We set the total amount of ethanol per session to 2 mL. To evaluate the efficacy and safety, CE-CT will be performed at 1 and 6 months after treatment. The primary endpoint is the percentage of subjects who achieved all of the following evaluated points. Efficacy will be evaluated based on the achievement of complete ablation (defined as no enhanced area within the tumour on CE-CT) at 1 and 6 months. Safety will be evaluated based on the avoidance of severe adverse events within 1 month after treatment, continuing severe pancreatic fistula at 1 month after treatment and the incidence and/or exacerbation of diabetes mellitus at 6 months after treatment. Ethics and dissemination This protocol has been approved by Okayama University Certified Review Board (approval number. CRB19-007). The results will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and will be presented at international conferences

Needle knife sphincterotomy for an impacted ampullary stone with difficult selective biliary cannulation

Endoscopic treatment is highly effective for extracting common bile duct (CBD) stones and is the most common therapeutic method for CBD stones. For patients with CBD stones, the treatment goal is to completely clear the biliary duct. In general, the successful extraction rate using a basket and/or balloon catheter is as high as 90%. However, stones that are resistant to conventional endoscopic treatment procedures can be both challenging and time consuming to treat; and successful treatment can require a combination of techniques, including mechanical lithotripsy or extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. We performed needle knife sphincterotomy and attempted to remove a CBD stone using biopsy forceps and alligator grasping forceps without a lithotripter in a patient with a large impacted stone at the ampulla of Vater. After attempting several techniques, the stone was successfully removed with balloon extraction