Results of Percutaneous Internal-External Drainage

Abstract

Transhepatic biliary drainage, in the vast majority of cases, is performed in patients with malignant obstruction of the extrahepatic bile ducts. As an alternative to surgical decompression as a flrst Step in a two-stage procedure, decrease of cholestasis can be achieved by temporary preoperative nonsurgical percutaneous transhepatic catheterization of the bile ducts. A decrease of operative morbidity and mortality secondary to preoperative transhepatic bile duct decompression in patients with extrahepatic cholestasis has been reported (Takada et al. 1976; Nakayama et al. 1978; Denning et al. 1981). Other authors observed no signiflcant difference in postoperative complications and mortality between patients treated with preoperative transhepatic bile drainage and jaundiced patients operated on without prior drainage (Hatfield et al. 1982)