Chronic use of statins and risk of post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background There is limited evidence on the role of chronic statin therapy in the prevention of acute pancreatitis after ERCP. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of statins in the prophylaxis of post-ERCP pancreatitis. Research design and methods Bibliographic search was performed through May 2020. The primary outcome was post-ERCP pancreatitis rate. An additional endpoint was the rate of severe pancreatitis. Results Nine studies, of which 1 prospective and 8 retrospective series, with 9374 patients were included. Baseline clinical and technical features were well balanced between the two study groups. Overall, pooled rate of post-ERCP pancreatitis was 4.8% (3.2%-6.4%) in the statin group and 7.1% (5.9%-8.3%) in the control group, with no difference in terms of pancreatitis rate (odds ratio 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.43-1.02). This finding was confirmed in the multivariate analysis adjusted for several clinical and technical characteristics (adjusted odds ratio 0.68, 0.40-1.15). No difference was observed between the two study groups in terms of severe pancreatitis rate (odds ratio 1.07, 0.61-1.89). Conclusions Our meta-analysis seems to suggest the non-superiority of chronic statin therapy in preventing post-ERCP pancreatitis.

Automated summary

The meta-analysis suggests that chronic statin therapy may not be superior in preventing post-ERCP pancreatitis compared to control groups.