[Transpapillary cholangioscopy. A new diagnostic and therapeutic dimension]

Transpapillary cholangioscopy (TCS) was performed in 52 patients (12 men, 40 women; mean age 61.6 [39-86] years) in whom endoscopic retrograde cholangiography had not provided a firm diagnosis. TCS was unsuccessful in five patients for technical or anatomical reasons. In 33 of the remaining 47 patients (70%) the procedure gave diagnostically or therapeutically useful results: In seven patients with tumour in the biliary tract biopsies were obtained, while in eight with extraductal stenoses cholangiography was made possible and provided the diagnosis. In eight patients residual gall stones were removed; in three cholangioscopically guided lithotripsy was successful. TCS proved to be a simple method with few complications; it significantly improved the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the biliary tract.