Common bile duct stricture as a late complication of upper abdominal radiotherapy

We report the cases of two patients who developed symptomatic common bile duct stricture 10 years after upper abdominal radiotherapy for malignant lymphoma. Both patients were in complete remission and presented with marked obstructive jaundice. Endosonography was useful in both cases and showed segmental thickening of the bile duct wall narrowing in the lumen. Both patients underwent surgical exploration, confirming biliary obstruction due to intrinsic wall thickening, and had successful biliary drainage by Roux-en-Y hepatico-jejunostomy. Histological examination of the resected bile duct, in one case, and of a bile duct biopsy, in the other, was consistent with late irradiation injury. We conclude that stricture may be a delayed consequence of radiotherapy applied to normal bile ducts.