EUS-guided gallbladder drainage as a rescue in distal malignant biliary obstruction: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Patients with distal malignant biliary obstruction (dMBO) needing biliary drainage (BD) undergo ERCP as a first approach. EUS-guided gallbladder drainage (EUS-GBD) is now accepted as a rescue alternative for the palliation of jaundice in those patients with dMBO who fail ERCP and cannot undergo EUS-BD. This is a systematic review with meta-analysis for evaluating the efficacy and safety of EUS-GBD in this scenario. A comprehensive search through the main database platforms was conducted to May 2024. Pooled estimates were obtained using a fixed-effects model with the generic inverse variance method. Study quality was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale (NOS). Heterogeneity was evaluated with I2 statistic. Clinical success, adverse events (AEs) rate, and reintervention rate were the main outcomes. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted. Eight studies including 183 patients were identified. Pooled clinical success was 89% (95% CI, 84%-93%). The pooled clinical success of full-text publication was 88% (95% CI, 83%-93%; I2 = 0%). Reintervention rate was 8% (95% CI, 4%-12%; I2 = 0%). The overall AE rate was 10% (95% CI, 6%-15%; I2 = 0%). The NOS allocated moderate quality in 7 studies. In conclusion, our findings confirm that EUS-GBD in dMBO is a feasible, effective, and safe technique as rescue therapy after failure of ERCP or EUS-BD.