Percutaneous dilatation of benign biliary strictures: single-session therapy with general anesthesia.

Abstract

Percutaneous biliary stricture dilatation (PBSD) is an uncomfortable procedure for patients that presently requires multiple dilatation sessions spread over many days. We evaluated the use of general anesthesia to enable PBSD to be performed in a single sitting in 14 patients with benign biliary strictures (11 anastomotic and three iatrogenic strictures). Four patients had multiple strictures, and the other 10 had a single stricture. Strictures were documented by transhepatic cholangiography (11 patients) or T-tube cholangiography (three); quantitative biliary perfusion studies were additionally performed in seven cases. Dilatation was performed transhepatically in 11 patients and via a T-tube track in three. Balloons ranged from 8 to 12 mm in diameter and were manually inflated for 3 min with an average of five inflations per stricture. Stenting catheters were left across the strictured areas in all patients for 6-21 days (mean, 10 days) before removal. The mean duration of hospital stay for all patients...