Recently, Prof. Wang Chunhui and Associate Prof. Huang Libin of the Gastroenterology Department of WCH successfully removed a calculus of more than 50px in the common bile duct for a 109-year-old patient. The patient then recovered and was discharged from the hospital.
Mr. Yu, an old doctor of Chinese traditional medicine, suffered from acute pancreatitis half a year ago and relieved soon after treatment in the local hospital; but through further examination, a big calculus was found in the common bile duct with biliary pancreatitis, and the stone was required to be eliminated. In view of the patient's age and technical difficulty, he was recommended to be further treated in West China Hospital.
After Prof. Wang carefully analyzed the patient's conditions and assessed the risk of the operation, and then fully communicated with himself and his son, he decided to remove the calculus by ERCP. During the operation, the bile duct calculus was found to be more than 2.0 cm in size, making it difficult to remove via mechanical lithotripsy. Neither the patient nor his family was willing to accept the surgery. In such case, Prof. Wang decided to place the biliary stent to make the biliary tract drainage normally and avoid recurrence of acute pancreatitis or cholangitis. Three days after the operation, the patient was discharged from the hospital safely.
In recent six months, Mr. Yu lives healthy without any discomfort. However, given that the patient's common bile duct stone are not fully removed, and the biliary stent may be blocked after long-term placement, Prof. Wang contacted his son and advised to remove the calculus or replace the stent again.
On April 29th, Prof. Wang's ERCP team successfully removed all stone in his common bile duct after removing the stent. It took only 20 minutes to finish the whole operation.
As a minimally invasive endoscopic technique, ERCP is an essential means to the treatment of biliary and pancreatic diseases. The ERCP team of West China Hospital completes about 1,500 therapeutic ERCP cases annually, including the cases for the elderly and critical patients. Mr. Yu is the oldest ERCP patient who received ERCP operation in WCH and even in China, demonstrating the technical level of WCH as a large general hospital.