Bilateral intrahepatic lithiasis without extrahepatic bile duct stones

Bilateral intrahepatic lithiasis is a rare condition, and for this reason a nationwide survey was conducted. Reports on 675 patients with bilateral intrahepatic lithiasis over a 10-year-period were collected. Among these, 258 patients with bilateral intrahepatic lithiasis having no extrahepatic bile duct stones were analyzed. The peak incidence was seen in the fourth to sixth decades. Males and females were equally effected. The stones removed were mainly calcium bilirubinate stones (75.6%). The main clinical symptoms were abdominal pain, fever and jaundice. Charcot's triad was seen in 29.7%, while 12.4% of the patients had no symptoms. Visualization of each segmental duct of the liver by direct cholangiography was excellent in this survey and ranged from 88 to 97.3% of the patients. The most frequent site of stones was the left hepatic duct (60.1%). The site of bile duct dilatation coincided with the location of stones. The most common sites of stenosis were the central part of the lateral segmental duct (32.5%) and the left hepatic duct (37.6%). Hepatic resection was employed in 49.2% of the patients, and drainage procedures were added in 95.6%. Follow-up studies of 236 patients treated by surgery revealed good results in 67.4%, fair in 13.6%, and poor in 7.6%. In these patients, however, endoscopic lithotomy was often employed intra- and/or post-operatively. Conducting hepatic resection, with adequate biliary drainage procedure and cholangiofiberscopic lithotomy may help to improve the therapeutic results of bilateral intrahepatic lithiasis.