Introduction:

Currently the population survives at an advanced age, the World Health Organization refers as elderly adults to people 60 years of age, and as old those who reach 80 years. As the population ages, the biliopancreatic pathology increases. Icteric obstructive syndrome is the principal indication for performing endoscopic cholangiographypancreatography (ECP) in elderly adults. The success for EC in the elderly is 88%. The complications related to ECP range from 5 to 10% and can be categorized as non-specific (associated to sedation and comorbidities) and specific (related to the procedure itself such as pancreatitis, perforation, hemorrhage, cholangitis); age and comorbidities increase the frequency of “no specific”, while they do not affect specific complications, so ECP is considered safe and effective for the treatment of pancreatobiliar disease in elderly and old people.

Objective:

Describe the experience in EC in this age group in the Endoscopy department of Hospital Juárez de México.

Material and methods:

We analyzed the files of patients of 60 years and older who underwent EC at the Endoscopy department of Hospital Juárez de México in the period between January and December of 2018.

Results:

We included 52 patients who underwent ECP, 43 (82.6%) were elderly and 9 (17.3%) old patients; with respect to gender, half of the patients were men and half were women; 50% of the patients presented comorbidities, predominantly systemic arterial hypertension in 80.77% (21 patients); 11 patients underwent more than one procedure, with a total of 65 ECPs. The main indication to perform ECP, was icteric syndrome under study in 16 procedures (24.6%). The most frequent endoscopic procedure was sphincterotomy in 32 ECP (50.7%), the most common endoscopic diagnosis was biliary stenosis probably malignant in 26 procedures (40%). The endoscopic cholangiopancreatography was successful in 80% of the patients, in only 4 patients (7.6%) there were complications and adverse effects, all related to the procedure, these were; in 2 patients (3.07%) mild pancreatitis post-ECP and in the other 2 (3.07%) mild hemorrhage; the mortality was 0 patients.

Conclusions:

In the Endoscopy Department of Hospital Juárez de México, the indications, contraindications, and complications related to the procedure are similar for elderly and young patients, so advanced age is not a limitation.