Approaching 50 Years: The History of ERCP

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) has been a remarkable technological advance that has evolved over its nearly 50 years in the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy and has redefined the medical and surgical approach to patients with pancreatic and biliary tract diseases. Since its inception in 1968, the medical community has witnessed significant achievements by the pioneers in endoscopy who incrementally advanced ERCP techniques from their infancy to maturity. The infancy focused on diagnoses, the adolescence on therapies of common biliary tract diseases such as bile duct stones and malignant strictures, the early adulthood on therapy for diseases of the pancreas and prevention of pancreatitis, and now the mature adulthood focuses on continued refinement of techniques to make ERCP safer and more effective. The pioneers in the ERCP field are numerous and have played significant roles in developing new techniques and novel instrumentation, spearheaded innovative techniques to reduce adverse events, and effectively trained future generations of endoscopists to safely perform ERCP. We are now approaching a 50-year milestone, and as we look back, we can recall a journey in ERCP that has been enjoyable, exciting, and replete with enthusiastic innovation, and in the end has benefitted many patients ( Box 1.1 ). It would encompass an entire book to incorporate all of the important contributions made by the many ERCP endoscopists over the past 50 years. We apologize in advance to individuals who have advanced the field and are not mentioned in this brief summary of the history of ERCP.