Unilateral hepatic duct obstruction

Experience with unilateral hepatic duct obstruction is limited. We reviewed 33 cases of unilateral hepatic duct obstruction from a total of 500 patients with biliary reconstruction treated between 1965 and 1984. The median age of the patients reviewed was 56 years. The most common cause of unilateral hepatic duct obstruction was operative injury (73 percent of patients). Including operations for unilateral obstruction, patients in the series underwent 131 operations related to biliary tract problems. The most common presentation (73 percent of patients) was fever and pain. Obstruction was more common in the right duct than in the left duct by a ratio of 2:1 (22 patients versus 11 patients). The three types of surgical procedures used were hepaticojejunostomy (17 patients), dilatation and drainage (13 patients), and primary hepatic resection (3 patients). Atrophic hepatic lobes resulting in rotational deformity of the portal structures were resected in six patients with combined hepatic duct and arterial injury. No operative deaths occurred, although 51.5 percent of the patients had postoperative complications. Follow-up studies ranging from 1 to 16 years demonstrated that patients who had hepaticojejunostomy required less frequent reoperation compared with those who had dilatation (36 percent versus 64 percent) and had a lower postoperative mortality rate related to biliary tract problems (7 percent versus 18 percent). We conclude that unilateral hepatic duct obstruction continues to occur most commonly because of operative injury and is best treated by hepaticojejunostomy or by resection of chronically obstructed lobes when possible.