Sclerosing cholangitis: palliation with percutaneous cholangioplasty

Fourteen patients with sclerosing cholangitis underwent percutaneous cholangioplasty and stent placement with balloon-angioplasty and biliary-drainage catheters. There was initial clinical improvement in 13 of the 14 patients; one patient did not improve and died 1 month after the procedure. One of the 13 survivors developed encephalopathy and received a liver transplant 9 months after cholangioplasty; during the 9 months before transplantation, serum bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase levels returned to normal, and pruritus decreased. Restenosis of a duct following stent removal prompted repeat cholangioplasty in five of the 13 patients. Four of these five patients benefited from repeat cholangioplasty, and the fifth underwent liver transplantation 10 months after the second cholangioplasty. The other seven of the 13 survivors became either asymptomatic (n = 3) or less symptomatic than before cholangioplasty (n = 4) and did not require repeat cholangioplasty or liver transplantation during 10-42 months of follow-up.