What the ERCP team actually needs to know about your health
ERCP combines endoscopy and X-rays to examine and treat bile or pancreatic duct problems. Because it is a procedure with its own risks, the assessment is not only about the duct finding. The clinician has to weigh the intended intervention against your other conditions, your current medicines and how you have responded to sedation or anaesthesia before.
Start by listing every diagnosed condition in plain language, not just the ones you think are related to the bile or pancreatic ducts. Heart and lung disease, diabetes, kidney problems, bleeding or clotting disorders, previous abdominal surgery and any active infection all change how a team plans. So does pregnancy or the possibility of pregnancy. If you have had a reaction to contrast dye, sedation or antibiotics, that belongs at the top of the list.
Then list your medicines exactly as you take them: the name, the dose, how often, and whether you have recently stopped or changed anything. Include anything you take without a prescription, including herbal products and supplements, because some affect bleeding or interact with sedatives. Do not stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own to prepare for travel. Ask the prescribing clinician and the ERCP team what they want you to do.
The most useful thing you can do is not to decide which details matter. Give the full picture and let the treating clinician judge relevance. A condition you consider minor may be the one that changes the plan.
Records that make the assessment possible
The hospital cannot assess suitability from a diagnosis name alone. It needs the documents behind the diagnosis. For a duct problem, that normally means the imaging that first showed the problem and any later imaging that shows how it has changed. If you have had an MRCP, CT, ultrasound or previous ERCP, the images and the written reports are both useful. Reports describe what the radiologist or endoscopist concluded; images let the new team look for themselves.
Bring recent blood tests, especially those covering liver and pancreatic enzymes, blood count, clotting and kidney function. If you have a discharge summary from a previous hospital stay, that is often the single most efficient document, because it summarises the diagnosis, the treatment given and the medicines at discharge. Pathology reports matter if a stricture or mass was biopsied.
For your existing conditions, include clinic letters or summaries from the clinicians who manage them. A cardiology letter, a diabetes review or a respiratory assessment tells the ERCP team what has already been tried and what the current control looks like. If you use a device such as a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator, say so and bring the device card or recent check record.
Ask the hospital what format it accepts and whether it wants images on disc, a secure upload or translated summaries. Do not assume a particular format is required in China; confirm it with the specific hospital. If some records are missing, say so early rather than waiting until you arrive. The team can then tell you whether it needs them before an assessment or whether it can proceed and review them later.
Ask what the proposed ERCP involves before you discuss fitness
ERCP is a family of procedures, not one fixed operation. The assessment depends on what the team intends to do. Ask directly whether the plan is stone removal, stent placement, a tissue sample, dilation of a narrowing, or something else. Ask whether a stent is expected, and if so, whether a later procedure to remove or exchange it is anticipated. That matters because a plan with planned follow-up is different from a single diagnostic look.
Ask whether the team expects to complete the intended treatment in one session or whether more than one procedure may be needed. This is not a scheduling detail; it affects how you plan time away from home and how your other conditions will be managed across visits. Do not assume a number of sessions. Ask the team to explain its reasoning for your case.
It also helps to ask what alternatives exist if ERCP is not considered suitable for you. Sometimes imaging alone, a different endoscopic approach or surgery is the better route. The treating clinician is the only person who can weigh those options against your records. Your role is to make sure the clinician has enough information to do that.
If you have already been told elsewhere that ERCP is needed, say who told you and why. A clear referral question helps the new team focus its assessment, but it does not commit the hospital to accepting you or to performing the procedure.
How to communicate existing conditions without overwhelming the team
A short, structured summary at the front of your records saves time. Write one page with four headings: diagnoses, current medicines, allergies and reactions, and previous abdominal or endoscopic procedures. Under each, use dates where you know them. Then attach the supporting documents behind it.
Keep the summary factual. Avoid interpreting your own test results or predicting what the team will decide. If you are unsure whether something is relevant, include it and mark it as uncertain. Clinicians are used to incomplete histories; they are less well served by a history that has been edited to look simpler than it is.
Language is a practical issue. If your records are not in English or Chinese, ask the hospital whether it needs a translation and who should provide it. Do not assume a particular translation standard. Confirm what the specific hospital accepts before you pay for anything.
If you use a coordination service, its role is to help move documents and questions between you and the hospital, not to decide suitability. Clinical decisions, including whether ERCP is appropriate and what preparation is required, belong to the treating hospital and its licensed clinicians.
Questions to put in writing before the assessment
Putting your questions in writing gives the team something specific to answer and gives you a record of what was said. The questions below are starting points; add the ones that reflect your own conditions.
Ask whether the proposed ERCP is for diagnosis, treatment or both, and which duct problem is being addressed. Ask whether stenting is planned and whether follow-up procedures are expected. Ask which of your existing conditions the team considers most important in planning, and whether any of them need to be better controlled first. Ask what medicines you should continue, adjust or pause, and who will give you that instruction. Ask what records are still missing and whether they are needed before an assessment or can be reviewed later. Ask what the hospital's written estimate covers and what remains undecided, so you are not comparing an incomplete figure with a complete one.
Ask who will explain the procedure and its risks to you, and in what language. Ask what happens if the team decides ERCP is not suitable after reviewing your records. A clear answer to that question tells you how the assessment process actually works.
Do not treat a preliminary reply as a final decision. A records-based opinion can clarify options and identify missing information, but it does not establish final eligibility, hospital acceptance or a treatment date. Those come from the hospital after it has assessed you.
Practical preparation and a clear next step
Before you travel, confirm with the hospital what it needs from you and what it will provide. Ask whether an appointment is confirmed or provisional, and what still has to happen before it becomes confirmed. Ask how the hospital will contact you and how quickly you should expect a reply, without assuming a fixed response time.
Plan for the possibility that the assessment changes the plan. If the team needs a test you have not had, or wants a condition reviewed first, that is part of safe care rather than a delay to argue with. Keep your travel arrangements flexible enough to accommodate a changed plan, and do not book non-refundable commitments around an unconfirmed procedure date.
If your symptoms worsen, or you develop fever, severe pain, jaundice or vomiting, seek local urgent care rather than waiting for an overseas appointment. An enquiry about care in China should not delay assessment of an acute problem.
A useful first step is to send a brief summary of your diagnosis, your main question and a list of the records you already have. ChinaSpecialistCare's free initial case review checks the available information, identifies what is missing and suggests the relevant next step; it is not a diagnosis or a promise of acceptance. You can then decide whether to request a specialist appointment or a records-based opinion. The hospital, not the coordination team, decides whether ERCP is suitable for you.
Sources & scope of this guide
References and official service information relevant to this guide.
This is general planning information and has not been individually reviewed by a doctor. Medical decisions and personal treatment advice come from your treating clinicians.