[The cholestasis syndrome. A critical evaluation of an exploratory strategy]

The authors studied 160 cases of biliary stasis: 120 having intrahepatic cause (101 hepatic cirrhoses and 19 primitive biliary cirrhoses) and 40 extrahepatic cause (17 choledochal lithiases and 23 cancers of the pancreas head) and check up the diagnosis value of two investigation algorithms: echography, the first investigation, followed by hepatic biopsy puncture, if the intrahepatic biliary ducts are not dilated, or transhepatic cutaneous cholangiography if the intrahepatic biliary ducts are dilated in comparison with intravenous cholangiography in the first investigation. Echography has an increased diagnosis yield (96% sensitivity, 99% specificity), is cheap, noninvasive and is the first imaging exploration used in biliary stasis syndrome.