[Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERG) with a double-lumen balloon catheter--an improvement on the conventional...

We describe an improvement of the ERC-technique by use of a balloon catheter in order to hinder transpapillary contrast medium flow. The procedure was successful in patients presenting with choledochal stenosis or papillary insufficiency after previous endoscopic papillotomy. Two out of 11 cases in which the complete opacification of the biliary tree could not be achieved by standard ERC-technique are reported. The application of this technique will reduce the diagnostic indications for percutaneous transhepatic fine needle cholangiography which is still the method of choice in certain therapeutic indications.