[Use of transhepatic drainage in neoplastic stenosis of the upper biliary tract]

Rodney-Smith's technique (transtumoral transhepatic drainage) was used palliatively in 6 patients with cancer of the upper biliary tracts. Diagnosis from the symptomatology (essentially obstructive icterus) was not easy, though the picture can almost always be clarified by endovenous and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography and, more particularly, by preoperative and intrahepatic intraoperative cholangiography and choledochoscopy in connection with laparatomy. Two patients survived for 9 months and 2 yr respectively, whereas the remainder died within 30 days of surgery. Despite this high mortality, primarily due to very poor general condition, this type of palliative operation is still the best form of management.