Biliary stenting with or without sphincterotomy for malignant biliary obstruction: A meta-analysis

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the included trials in the meta-analysis

Ref.	Definition of	Group	Age (yr)	Diagnosis (n)			Gender	Endoscopist	Type of	Sedation	Prophy
	complications			Pancreatic	Cholangio-	Others	(M/F)		stent		lactic
				cancer	carcinoma						antibiotics
Giorgioet al[10]	According to the criteria of Cotton et al[32]	EST	72 ± 6	64	31	1	51/35	Two experienced endoscopists	Plastic stent	Not mentioned	Not mentioned
		Non-EST	75 ± 6	67	28	1	47/39
Artifon et al[11]	According to the criteria of Cotton et al[32]	EST	72.1	30	0	7	18/19	Three experienced endoscopists	Covered SEMS	Midazolam and fentanyl	Before ERCP
		Non-EST	65.4	30	0	7	12/25
Zhou et al[12]	According to the criteria of Cotton et al[32]	EST	65.1 ± 9.5	11	26	4	24/17	Two experienced endoscopists	Uncovered SEMS	Not mentioned	During ERCP
		Non-EST	64.0 ± 7.5	10	27	4	23/18

SEMS: Self-expandable metal stent; EST: Endoscopic sphincterotomy; ERCP: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Table 2 Characteristics of randomized comparisons of endoscopic sphincterotomy and non-endoscopic sphincterotomy groups n (%)

Ref.	Group	Successful stent insertion	Pancreatitis	Bleeding	Acute cholangitis	Stent occlusion	Stentmigration	Duodenal perforation
Giorgio et al[10]	EST	92 (95.8)	2 (2.2)	3 (3.3)	NR	1 (1.1)	3 (3.3)	NR
	Non-EST	90 (93.7)	2 (2.2)	0 (0)		2 (2.2)	3 (3.3)
Artifon et al[11]	EST	37 (100)	0 (0)	5 (13.5)	NR	3 (8.1)	6 (16.2)	4 (10.8)
	Non-EST	37 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)		3 (8.1)	1 (2.7)	0 (0)
Zhou et al[12]	EST	41 (100)	4 (9.8)	NR	24 (58.5)	5 (12.2)	NR	NR
	Non-EST	41 (100)	13 (31.7)		13 (31.7)	4 (9.8)

NR: Not reported; EST: Endoscopic sphincterotomy.

Table 3 Quality analysis of the included trials

Ref.	Randomization method	Allocation concealment	Blinding	Withdrawals
Giorgio et al[10]	Not mentioned	Adequate	Not mentioned	Not mentioned
Artifon et al[11]	Computer-generated	Adequate	Double-blind	Not mentioned
Zhou et al[12]	Computer-generated	Adequate	Not mentioned	Not mentioned