[Endoscopic treatment of choledocholithiasis]

Since endoscopic access was possible to the choledochal conduit and to the intrahepatic bile ducts with the help of fluoroscopy, the ability of the endoscopist, his/her experience in technological development and in endoscopies as well as in the multiple accessories that allow us direct or indirect ingress to the bile ducts, choledocholithiasis has been able to be resolved with a success rate that oscillates between 95 and 99%, revolutionizing the management which formerly required from one to multiple surgical interventions with very high morbidity-mortality. Endoscopic management, with the passage of time, has shown itself to be the treatment of choice in choledocholithiasis as well as in other types of bile duct obstructive problems. The advent of new techniques of sphincterotomy, of the dilatation of the Oddi sphincter without the need for sphincterotomy, and also such as the diverse types of lithotripsy, including mechanical lithotripsy, electrohydraulic lithotripsy and extracorporeal lithotripsy, and the use of the laser for the destruction of the stones in the bile ducts, has increased the percentage of success in a significant way. This is of the utmost importance if we are to achieve working in a team with the surgeon, above all in the laparoscopic era in which we find ourselves, where the procedures are of minimum invasion, highly effective, come to resolve choledocholithiasis and chronic lithiasic cholecystitis with very low morbidity and mortality, and with a very short hospital stay.