charting unexplored territories: ercp indications and complications in pediatric patients; a cross-sectional study from 2022 to 2023

Background: there are ongoing concerns about the safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ercp) in children, as recorded cases have shown complications.objectives: the objective of this study is to investigate the indications, complications, and outcomes of ercp in pediatric patients. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted at namazi and abu ali sina hospitals between september 2022 and december 2023. the study focused on pediatric patients aged 1 month to 18 years undergoing ercp. the demographics, indications for ercp, pre-procedural imaging findings, and complications within 72 hours and up to 6 months after ercp were extracted from medical records. results: during the study period, a total of 100 ercp procedures were performed on 56 pediatric patients. the mean age of the patients was 10.22 ± 4.80 years, with females accounting for 53.6% of the group. the main indications for performing ercp were the presence of a stricture after orthotopic liver transplantation (22%) and the presence of a common bile duct stone (19%). the incidence of complications was notable for acute pancreatitis (3%) and bleeding (2%), while the failure rate for ercp operations was determined to be 4%. conclusions: the infrequent occurrence of failures and complications highlights the substantial benefit of ercp in treating biliary and pancreatic illnesses in children.