Safety and effectiveness of ultrasound-guided percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage: a multicenter experience

Aim of this study is to describe a multicenter experience on percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) performed with ultrasound-guidance to access the biliary tree, focusing on safety, effectiveness and radiation dose exposure; differences between right- and left-sided approaches have been also evaluated.

This is a multicenter prospective single-arm observational study conducted on patients affected by biliary tree stenosis/occlusion with jaundice and endoscopically inaccessible. The procedures have been performed puncturing the biliary system under US guidance and crossing the stenosis/occlusion under fluoroscopy. Beam-on time and X-ray dose have been evaluated.

117 patients affected by biliary tree stenosis/occlusion not manageable with an endoscopic approach have been included in this analysis. The biliary stenosis/occlusion was malignant in 90.8% and benign in 9.2%. Technical success, considered as positioning of a drainage tube into the biliary tree, was 100%. Overall clinical success, considered as decrease in total bilirubin level after a single procedure, was 95.7%. The overall mean number of liver punctures to catheterize the biliary tree was 1.57. The mean total beam-on time was 570.4 s; the mean dose-area product was 37.25 Gy cm². No statistical significant differences were observed in terms of technical and dosimetry results according to right-sided and left-sided procedures. Complications rate recorded up to 30 days follow-up was 10.8%, all of minor grades.

In this series US guidance to access the biliary tree for PTBD was a safe and effective technique with an acceptable low-grade complications rate; the reported radiation dose is low.