CHOLANGIOGRAPHIC DEMONSTRATION OF BILIARY DYSSYNERGIA

Abstract

Although during the last fifteen years definite advances have been made in the diagnosis of lesions of the biliary tract, we not infrequently are unable to appreciate the relation of the common bile duct to the patient's complaint. It is true that biliary surgery gives very gratifying results in most instances, but it is that group of patients whose response has not been entirely satisfactory which concerns us. Cholecystograms, as sponsored by Graham and Cole,¹furnish valuable evidence regarding the gallbladder, but they are of little value in disturbances of the common bile duct. Elsewhere in the body, tubular organs can be injected with radiopaque solutions that graphically outline such organic changes as tumors, stones, strictures and inflammation and depict any variation in activity or motility resulting from functional disturbances. It is our purpose in this paper to present clinical and x-ray evidence of spasm of the lower end