[Management of difficult cases of biliary lithiasis]

To assess that insertion of a biliary endoprosthesis is a safe and effective treatment in patients with retained common bile duct stones (CBDS).

Before 1974, surgical exploration including cholecystectomy with choledochotomy was the only effective treatment for CBDS. However, morbi-mortality increases rapidly in the elderly and is over 10% in patients over 65, particularly if other serious medical conditions are present. Endoscopic sphincterectomy is now an established procedure, with a success rate of about 90%, complications are relatively rare, and mortality is about 1%. However, the size and number of the stones, the appearance of the terminal bile duct and presence of peripapillary diverticulum influence the outcome. At the present time technique of fragmenting the stones using intracorporeal electrohydraulic, extracorporeal shock waves or laser lithotripsy would be seen to be an attractive alternative approach. Endoprosthesis insertion is a safe, effective and cheap treatment in CBDS.

40 patients with unextractable CBDS were studied and treated with endoscopic stenting. Four patients were lost for follow-up. The remaining patients comprised 29 females and 7 males, with a mean age of 67 years. Four patients underwent surgical treatment for post-sphincterotomy haemorrhage (1 patient), internal endoprosthesis migration (1 patient) and peripapillary diverticulum (2 patients). In 7 high-risk patients with large CBDS, recurrent obstructive jaundice was successfully treated by replacing the endoprosthesis. In 6 of them we added medical treatment with ursodeoxycholic acid and after 24 months follow-up, the stones disappeared. In 13 patients the endoprosthesis were inserted temporally, and in a second approach we removed the CBDS by mechanical lithotripsy. The remaining 12 patients were still alive without symptoms after a follow-up of 24 months.

On the basis of these findings we therefore concluded that endoscopic insertion of a biliary endoprosthesis is a safe and effective treatment for CBDS in patients in whom endoscopic sphincterotomy and attemps to remove the stones are not successful.