Journal of vascular and interventional radiology : JVIR
July 8, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Single-Session Outpatient Gallstone Organ-Sparing Cholangioscopy and Percutaneous Extraction (GO-SCOPE) for Symptomatic Biliary Colic: A Single-Center Retrospective Study.
Smirniotopoulos J, Jain N, Kim E, Abouassaly C, Trankiem C, Marchalik D.
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Single-session percutaneous gallbladder-sparing cholangioscopic stone extraction (GO-SCOPE) achieved 91% technical and about 97-98% clinical success in patients who declined cholecystectomy.
What was studied
Single-center retrospective study of 66 patients with symptomatic biliary colic eligible for but declining cholecystectomy who underwent same-day percutaneous gallbladder access and cholangioscopic stone extraction (2024-2025).
Key findings
- Single-session technical success 60/66 (90.9%); 6 required repeat cholangioscopy
- Mean time to tube removal 21.3 days
- Asymptomatic subcentimeter stones in 2/60 (3.3%) at 3-month imaging
- Clinical success 98.3% at 3 months and 96.8% (30/31) at 12 months
- 4 adverse events (1 moderate, 3 severe)
Clinical relevance
This suggests an organ-sparing percutaneous option for selected patients who decline surgery, but the short follow-up, small retrospective cohort and known gallstone recurrence risk mean long-term durability is unknown.
Who should care
Limitations
Single-center retrospective design, short follow-up with only 31 patients at 12 months, no surgical comparison, and 3 severe adverse events in a small cohort.
GO-SCOPE may be an option for patients refusing cholecystectomy, but long-term stone recurrence is the key unknown.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
Purpose
To test the hypothesis that gallstone organ-sparing cholangioscopy and percutaneous extraction (GO-SCOPE) achieves high single-session technical success, durable symptom improvement, and an acceptable safety profile in patients with symptomatic calculous biliary colic who elect nonsurgical management despite eligibility for cholecystectomy.
Materials and methods
This retrospective study evaluated consecutive patients who underwent GO-SCOPE between April 2024 and July 2025 at a single tertiary academic center. The procedure consisted of same-day percutaneous gallbladder access, cholangioscopy-assisted gallstone extraction with lithotripsy as needed, and placement of a percutaneous cholecystostomy or transcystic biliary drain for tract maturation. Sixty-six patients (mean age, 46.0 years; range, 25-72 years) underwent GO-SCOPE. Primary outcomes included technical success (removal of all visualized gallstones in a single session), clinical success (improvement or resolution of biliary colic symptoms), and 30-day adverse events classified according to the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) adverse event classification system. Secondary outcomes included residual or recurrent gallstones on follow-up imaging.
Results
Single-session technical success was achieved in 60 (90.9%) of 66 patients; 6 required repeat cholangioscopy for residual stones. Mean time to tube removal was 21.3 days. Among 60 patients with 3-month follow-up imaging, 2 (3.3%) demonstrated asymptomatic subcentimeter gallstones. Clinical success was achieved in 59 (98.3%) of 60 patients at 3-month follow-up and 30 (96.8%) of 31 patients at 12-month follow-up. Four adverse events occurred, including 1 moderate and 3 severe.
Conclusions
GO-SCOPE demonstrated high technical and clinical success with an acceptable safety profile as an organ-sparing alternative to cholecystectomy in patients with symptomatic gallstone disease.
DOI
10.1016/j.jvir.2026.108938
PMID
42419554
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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