Hepato-biliary-enteric stent drainage as palliative treatment for proximal malignant obstructive jaundice

The proximal malignant obstructive jaundice remains one of the most challenging problems for hepato-biliary surgeons. Particularly when the findings preclude surgical resection at exploration, the next decision seems hard to make. A novel palliative treatment called "hepato-biliary-enteric stent drainage" was designed for these proximal malignant obstructive jaundice patients. Hepato-biliary-enteric stent drainage was performed with silicone tube whose diameter was determined according to the degree of dilated biliary ducts, and the proximal end of the tube was placed to intrahepatic ducts as far as possible, the distal end was placed across the duodenal papilla. Between February 2011 and August 2012, 23 patients with the proximal malignant obstructive jaundice of unresectable tumors at exploration received hepato-biliary-enteric stent drainage. Patient's liver function results, symptoms, complications, and survival time were documented. The bilirubin levels of all 23 patients had a considerable and persistent decrease after operation and remained low or normal before death except for four cases of recurrent jaundice (two resulted from migration of tube and other two resulted from hepatocellular carcinoma extensively involving liver parenchyma). After effective drainage, clinical symptoms of cholangitis such as fever or pain were markedly relieved. No procedure-related bleeding, bile leakage, pancreatitis were observed. The median survival time was 212 days, half-year and 1-year survival rate were 56.5 and 21.7%, respectively. Hepato-biliary-enteric stent drainage with less expense, less complications, and easy operation may be an ideal option for patients with unresectable malignancy in the hilar region at exploration.