Endoscopic Sphincterotomy before Fully Covered Metal Stent Placement Is Not Required for Distal Malignant Biliary Stricture due to a Pancreatic Head Tumor

Table 2

Comparison of endoscopic procedures between the EST and non-EST groups.

	EST group; ()	Non-EST group; ()	value
Incision range of EST
Small/medium/large	11/20/1	—
Pancreatography	14	14	0.684
Biliary biopsy	7	5	0.587
Bile cytology	13	8	0.101
Pancreatic juice cytology	1	1	0.526
IDUS of bile duct	0	1	0.953
Pancreatic stenting	1	0	0.953
Procedure time (min, )	31.1 ± 13.9	29.1 ± 9.8	0.501

EST: endoscopic sphincterotomy; IDUS: intraductal ultrasonography; SD: standard deviation.