Percutaneous stone clearance of the gallbladder through an access cholecystostomy. Laparoscopic-guided technique

A laparoscopic-guided technique of percutaneous gallstone fragmentation/removal has been developed in the pig. The procedure entails the creation of a percutaneous access cholecystostomy. The access tract can be safely dilated after 7 days to F16, thereby allowing the introduction of both the Olympus flexible and the Berci-Shore rigid choledochoscopes. Following endoscopic occlusion of the cystic duct by a biliary balloon catheter, stone fragmentation can be conducted under direct visual control. In this particular study, electrohydraulic lithotripsy was performed of human cholesterol and bile-pigment stones inserted into the gallbladder of 16 pigs. The gallstone debris resulting from lithotripsy was then washed out with saline. Larger residual fragments could easily be extracted with the Dormia basket under visual guidance. There was a significant positive correlation between stone size (r = 0.98) and weight (r = 0.96) and the number of pulses needed to achieve satisfactory stone fragmentation. The gross composition of the stones (predominantly cholesterol or pigment) did not influence the number of pulses required. Electrohydraulic lithotripsy caused an explosion effect (the fragments hit the gallbladder wall), causing submucosal haematoma formation. This, however, was not followed by any untoward effect until sacrifice of the animals 10-16 weeks later. Electrohydraulic shocks delivered to the gallbladder wall itself resulted in larger haematoma formation and breach of the gallbladder mucosa with active bleeding into the gallbladder lumen, but again no instance of gallbladder perforation was encountered.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)