[Hepatolithiasis and Caroli's disease in Argentina: results of a multicenter study]

The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence, epidemiology and clinical-therapeutical evolution of hepatolithiasis (HL) in Argentina. With this purpose a survey was conducted sending a questionnaire to ten referencial and interventional radiology centers in the country. Seven centers answered on time. In the last five years a total of 8,736 consecutive patients were examined for cholangiography (endoscopic retrograde cholangiography, PTC). A total of 5,920 (68%) were biliary lithiasis and 53 (0.9%, range 0.5-2.6%) of these were HL. In case of HL the diagnostic procedure was the ERCP in 68% of the cases, and the PTC in the remainder 32%. The patients with HL (53% females, mean age 52, range 23-85) clinically presented cholangitis (79%); pancreatitis (6%) and five (9.4%) showed evolution to a biliary cirrhosis. Associated diseases or abnormalities of the biliary tree were: biliary postsurgical strictures (BPS), 28%; Caroli's Syndrome, 20%; and choledocholithiasis, 28%. While a 9.4% presented a "biliary history" (that was defined as two or more episodes of biliary surgery) and a 5.7% lacked associated or predisposing diseases. Follow-up was lost in 23% of the cases and in 77% a follow up of 38 months (range 8-60) was observed with 4.8% mortality rate. The treatment was hepatobiliary surgery in 58% of the cases; endoscopic papillotomy in 17% and combined treatments that included extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in 15%. Four out of 53 cases (7.5%) received UDCA as the only successful therapy. HL is an entity with high biliary morbidity in 85% of the cases and development in to cirrhosis in 9.4%. When the diagnosis is made in the western world both BPS and Caroli must be discarded first. Combined treatments or only UDCA are new therapeutical alternative in the western world.