2009 Volume 27 Pages 111-114
Endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) is a popular technique for the management of common bile duct stones. However, bleeding is one of the most common and potentially serious complications of ES. In the present article we described 2 patients with ES-induced bleeding, in whom our endoscopic hemostatic technique of microwave tissue coagulation (MTC) arrested the bleeding. MTC is tissue coagulation leveraging auto-induction heat. Therefore, duodenal tissue is coagulated homogenously without carbonization and the coagulation area is limited within an area of 5 mm in width and 2 mm in depth at a coagulation under our operational conditions (50 watts times 3-5 seconds at one go) using coaxial cable of 2.4 mm in diameter. It means that by applying MTC hemostatic therapy for ES-induced bleeding, there is little risk of acute pancreatitis and duodenal perforation. Moreover, MTC therapy is able to approach from tangential adjusting easily with the straight-view scope. As a result, MTC therapy has an important advantage in terms of both facility and safety as an endoscopic hemostatic method for the treatment of ES-induced bleeding.