Samyook Busan Hospital Achieves First Success with Advanced Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Drainage, Improving Patient Quality of Life

Samyook Busan Hospital (Director: Choi Myungseop) recently performed two successful procedures: an 'endoscopic ultrasound-guided pseudocyst drainage' on a 74-year-old male patient with cholangitis and cholecystitis, and an 'endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage' on an 88-year-old female patient with cholecystitis.

These are the hospital's first successful cases of these procedures, demonstrating its clinical capabilities in the field of advanced endoscopic interventions.

The first procedure was performed on a 74-year-old male patient suffering from cholangitis and cholecystitis. Due to severe inflammation, a pseudocyst had formed at the gastric pylorus, resulting in symptoms of gastric outlet obstruction.

The medical team used endoscopic ultrasound to puncture the pseudocyst, then inserted two plastic drainage catheters connecting the gastric wall and the pseudocyst, successfully completing the drainage. As a result, the patient's symptoms rapidly improved.

The second procedure was performed on an 88-year-old female patient with cholecystitis and biliary obstruction. The patient already had a biliary drainage catheter in place due to biliary obstruction caused by pancreatic cancer, and additionally developed a hematoma in the gallbladder, making surgical treatment difficult. Therefore, the medical team used endoscopic ultrasound as a guiding device to insert a metal drainage catheter into the gallbladder, successfully providing an effective, surgery-replacing treatment.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided drainage is a procedure that drains the gallbladder or pseudocyst through the stomach or duodenum using an endoscope, and is indicated for patients in whom percutaneous or surgical approaches are difficult due to anatomical abnormalities, advanced age, or underlying diseases. This treatment can reduce the need for external drainage catheters and prolonged hospitalization, and is gaining attention for its potential to enable rapid recovery and improve quality of life.

The scene of draining a pseudocyst by inserting a drainage catheter. Provided by Samyook Busan Hospital

Kim Jinnam, head of the Department of Gastroenterology, stated, "The success of these procedures is not merely a technical achievement, but a treatment case that has provided real help in the patient's recovery and quality of life. Samyook Busan Hospital will continue to strengthen its clinical capabilities in advanced endoscopic therapies that can minimize the burden on patients."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.