[Adult patients with clinically suspected or known biliopancreatic pathology in whom ERCP is not indicated: the 10 most frequent situations].

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is an invasive endoscopic technique widely used in the diagnosis and eventual therapeutic procedures of many biliopancreatic conditions. While endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography indications are well known, it is not the same in those patients with clinically suspected or known biliopancreatic entities in whom endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography is not indicated because it will not add valuable information with the potential of changing the previous diagnosis or therapy. Ten very common clinical situations in which this technique is not indicated are presented; among them idiopathic abdominal pain, some pancreatic carcinomas, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic pseudocyst, and some patients awaiting conventional or laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We acknowledge that some aspects of this paper are controversial.