Medium and long-term complications difference between laparoscopic transcystic common bile duct exploration versus endoscopic sphincterotomy against choledocholithiasis A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Common bile duct stone (CBDS) is typically manifested with abdominal pain, chills, fever, and jaundice. Laparoscopic transcystic common bile duct exploration (LTCBDE) and endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) are currently the main minimally invasive methods for the treatment of CBDS. However, there are few studies about the differences of medium and long-term complication after EST or LTCBDE. Therefore, we will conduct a meta-analysis and systematic review to systematically evaluate the difference of medium and long-term complications between EST and LTCBDE against CBDS. Methods: Randomized controlled trials of EST or LTCBDE against CBDS will be searched in several English and Chinese databases with the following vocabularies: laparoscopic transcystic common bile duct exploration, endoscopic sphincterotomy, choledocholithiasis, common bile duct stone until December, 2020. Two reviewers will independently conduct the literature extraction, risk of bias assessment, and statistical analysis. Results and Conclusions: The study will help to systematically evaluate the difference of medium and long-term complication between EST and LTCBDE against CBDS. OSF Registration number: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/5U7SA.

Automated summary

This study aims to compare the medium and long-term complications between EST and LTCBDE in treating CBDS, in order to systematically evaluate the differences between the two methods.