Development of a novel anchoring device for endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage

Abstract

Percutaneous gallbladder drainage is performed in patients with acute cholecystitis who are not eligible for emergency surgery and are scheduled for standby surgery. However, endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) is expected to be an alternative method, but it is mainly used in nonresectable cases. In this study, we performed laparoscopic cholecystectomy in five living pigs after EUS-GBD using a newly developed device based on the hypothesis that transgastric drainage would enable laparoscopic cholecystectomy. In all cases, cholecystectomy could be performed without laparotomy. In the future, we would like to verify the feasibility and safety of laparoscopic cholecystectomy after EUS-GBD using this device in humans.