Intraductal ablation by radiofrequency for inoperable biliopancreatic neoplasms with jaundice: experience at a regional hospital.

The current treatment of choice for inoperable and/or unresectable biliopancreatic neoplasms complicated by jaundice is the placement of metal biliary stents. The most common complication is obstruction due to tumor growth. The application of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a new minimally invasive technique for the thermal ablation of the tumor tissue that causes biliary stenosis. Experience with RFA is scarce and there are few retrospective studies of clinical cases with a limited number of patients. Thus, there is little information on technical difficulty, safety and short-medium term monitoring. We present three cases, one cholangiocarcinoma and two pancreatic adenocarcinomas, with jaundice due to biliary stenosis. RFA was used with an ELRA catheter during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The patients were monitored for ten months in order to assess the difficulty of treatment, efficacy and immediate and medium-term complications.