CLINICAL STUDIES ON LITHOTOMY OF BILIARY STONES USING PERCUTANEOUS TRANSHEPATIC CHOLANGIOSCOPY

Abstract

The removal of stones using percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy (PTCS) was performed in 38 patients with the stones in gall bladder or bile trees. All patients had been evaluated to bear high risk to laparotomy. Complete or partial removal of the stones was succeeded in 28 patients (68.4%) by the endoscopy alone. In 6 patients (15.8%), cholecystectomy was performed after the removal of stones in the common bile duct or intrahepatic bile trees using PTCS. Following six cases were unsuccessful by the endoscopy alone. Two cases (5.3%) were treated surgically after failing the stone removal with PTCS. Emergency operation was done in one cases (2.6%) due to leakage of the ventral biliary fistura. Three patients (7.9%) were laid under observation after failure of the endoscopical removal. Our results indicates that, PTCS is the safe and useful method for the removal of stones of patients who are too risky to undergo laparotomy although there were some unsuccessful cases.