Use of rigid nephroscope for laparoscopic common bile duct exploration-a single-center experience

Increasingly, laparoscopic biliary surgeons are undertaking laparoscopic cholecystectomy and laparoscopic common bile duct exploration for patients with cholelithiasis and choledocholithiasis. In laparoscopic common bile duct exploration a flexible choledochoscope is ordinarily used, and with this instrument the surgeon usually fails to remove large impacted stones. In contrast with use of a rigid nephroscope it is possible to remove all common bile duct stones irrespective of size and degree of impaction. The present study evaluates the efficiency of rigid nephroscope for managing common bile duct stones laparoscopically.

In the present study laparoscopic common bile duct exploration for stones was performed in 80 patients via standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy port sites. Patients with a common bile duct diameter >10 mm were included in this study. The rigid nephroscope was passed through the epigastric port and negotiated into the common bile duct through a choledochotomy. Stones were removed with graspers. Large hard stones were fragmented by pneumatic lithotripsy.

Of the 80 patients treated in this manner, 72 (90%) had multiple common bile duct calculi, and 8 (10%) had a solitary common bile duct calculus. Mean common bile duct diameter was 15.3 mm (range: 10-37 mm). Conversion to open common bile duct exploration was necessary in 1 case (1.25%) because of difficult dissection secondary to extensive dense adhesions. In 7 patients (8.75%) a pneumatic lithotripter was used to fragment stones. Choledochotomy was managed by placing a T-tube in 21 (26.25%) patients, by effecting primary closure in 58 (72.5%) patients, and by choledochoduodenostomy in 1 (1.25%) patient. The mean operative time in this series was 83 min (range: 53-135 min). The mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.2 days (range: 3-19 days). One patient (1.25%) developed cholangitis 5 months after laparoscopic common bile duct exploration; the cause was a residual common bile duct stone.

A rigid nephroscope can be used for managing all types of common bile duct calculi irrespective of site, size, composition, or degree of impaction. Its use can be expected to become the standard for laparoscopic common bile duct exploration, especially for removing large calculi from a dilated common bile duct.