[Endoscopic sphincterotomy in the treatment of choledochol calculus]

Fifty patients with choledochal calculus were treated by endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) and forty-nine of them were cured. Stones were excreted in forty-six patients spontaneously and in two patients by basket. Stones disappeared in one patient after extracorporeal shock wave therapy. The complications included gastrointestinal hemorrhage (2%), pancreatitis (2%) and cholangitis (4.1%). Twelve of them were followed by barium meal after EST. The barium was found in biliary tract in one patient and pneumatosis in another one without any clinical symptoms. The authors suggest that EST could be an important nonoperative therapy in the treatment of choledochal calculus.