Abstract:Abstract: Objective?To investigate the clinical role and possible mechanism of small endoscopic sphincterotomy combined with endoscopic papillary balloon dilation (sEST+EPBD) in treatment of choledocholithiasis.?Methods?200 patients with choledocholithiasis from January, 2013 to December, 2017 were divided into the EST group and the sEST + EPBD group. The operative time, hospitalization time, total cost, complications and inflammatory indexes of the two groups were compared and analyzed.?Results?No pancreatitis occurred in the two groups after operation and all the patients were cured. In addition, mean operation time, hospitalization time, blood loss and postoperative biliary tract infection in the sEST + EPBD group were significantly lower than those in the EST group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in average total cost and biliary tract perforation between the two groups (P > 0.05). At 1 h and 24 h after the operation, WBC, Cox-2, PCT, CRP and TNF-α levels in the sEST+EPBD group were significantly lower than those in the EST group (P < 0.01), while the serum amylase level in the sEST+EPBD group was significantly higher (P < 0.01). At 72 h after surgery, levels of WBC and Cox-2 in the sEST + EPBD group were significantly lower than those in the EST group (P < 0.05), while levels of PCT, CRP, amylase and TNF-α were insignificant (P > 0.05).?Conclusion?Small endoscopic sphincterotomy + endoscopic papillary balloon dilation is an effective and safe method for the treatment of choledocholithiasis, which can reduce the duration of surgery and hospitalization, effectively control the occurrence and postoperative biliary tract infection, and significantly reduce the inflammatory response.