Endoscopic treatment of Bouveret syndrome with a combination of electrohydraulic lithotripsy and balloon expansion: A case report.

Bouveret syndrome is a rare type of ileus caused by the impaction of gallstones passing through a cholecystoenteric fistula in the duodenum. Endoscopic treatment with minimally invasive procedures is preferable for patients with this syndrome, typically for elderly individuals with a high surgical risk. Conventional endoscopic techniques often fail to remove impacted stones that are generally large and occasionally solid. We report the case of an 88-year-old bedridden woman with severe dementia who presented with difficulty in breathing. The patient was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. In addition, computed tomography showed a cholecystoduodenal fistula and a gallstone 37 mm in diameter that impacted the duodenal bulb. Bouveret syndrome was diagnosed on the basis of the computed tomography findings. The impacted stone was too large and hard to split with standard endoscopic lithotripsy using grasping forceps, mechanical lithotripter, polypectomy snare, basket catheter, and electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL). However, EHL with a dual-channel therapeutic endoscope was achieved to drill a narrow hole approximately 20 mm deep into the stone, in four sessions. The stone was subsequently split by inflating the balloon, which was inserted into the hole, to 10 mm in diameter at 3 atm. All the split stones were spontaneously excreted during defecation after a few days. If the gallstone is too hard to fragment by endoscopic EHL alone, a combination of EHL and balloon expansion might be a useful alternative.

Mirizzi Syndrome Type IV Successfully Treated with Peroral Single-operator Cholangioscopy-guided Electrohydraulic Lithotripsy: A Case Report with Literature Review.

A 76-year-old man presented with liver dysfunction and intrahepatic bile duct dilatation. Imaging studies showed two large stones that had become impacted in the common hepatic duct, which was fused with the gallbladder. The patient was diagnosed with Mirizzi syndrome type IV. Hepaticojejunostomy and stone removal failed due to dense gallbladder adhesions involving the right hepatic artery. The bile flow was temporarily restored; however, the patient experienced cholangitis 16 months later. The stones were extracted via peroral single-operator cholangioscopy (SOC)-guided electrohydraulic lithotripsy. This is the first case in which stones were completely removed by SOC-guided treatment in a patient with Mirizzi syndrome type IV.

The relationship between iron deficiency in patients with Helicobacter pylori-infected nodular gastritis and the serum prohepcidin level.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is recognized as a causative agent for unexplained iron-deficiency anemia (IDA). We evaluated many background factors influencing an iron-deficiency state in adult patients with various H. pylori-infected upper gastrointestinal tract diseases. METHOD: Study 1: H. pylori-infected 121 patients (nodular gastritis (NG) (n = 19), duodenal ulcer (DU) (n = 30), or gastric ulcer (GU) (n = 47), or gastric hyperplastic polyp (GHP) (n = 25)) were enrolled. The RBC count and hemoglobin, iron, ferritin, pepsinogen (PG) I, PG II, gastrin, and anti-H. pylori antibody (Ab) levels in the serum were measured. Study 2: H. pylori-infected 105 patients (NG, n = 19; DU, n = 43; GU, n = 32; GHP, n = 11) and non-H. pylori-infected individuals (n = 35) were examined for the levels of prohepcidin, ferritin, and iron in the serum. In addition, we measured the data before and after the H. pylori eradication. RESULTS: In the patients with GHP and NG, hypoferritinemia was observed in comparison with the GU and DU patients. In the GHP patients, low levels of PG I, a decreased PG I/II ratio, and hypergastrinemia were observed. The levels of serum prohepcidin in the patients with H. pylori-associated disease were higher than those in the uninfected adults. In the patients with NG, the serum prohepcidin levels were higher than those in the other H. pylori-infected patient groups and decreased after the eradication. CONCLUSION: H. pylori-related iron-deficiency state might be associated with several factors, such as hypochlorhydria and hepcidin, in patients with GHP or NG.