[Carcinoma of the extrahepatic bile duct]

The diagnosis and treatment of 18 patients with carcinoma of the extrahepatic bile duct are reported. All patients were worked up by USG, PTC or ERC before operation. Tumor was resected in 3 patients, palliative internal or external drainage of the biliary tract was performed in 10, 1 was explored and 4 received PTCD treatment. One of the patients with the tumor resected has survived for 2 years. Mean survival time after the operation was 5.6 months for patients treated by drainage. The authors believe that PTC and ERC play the most important role in diagnosing carcinoma of the biliary tract. As this tumor has a low resection rate, internal or external drainage of the biliary tract should be done for patients with unresectable lesions. PTCD is still one of the effective palliative therapies for inoperable lesions.