Successful laparoscopic management for cholecystoenteric fistula.
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AIM: Since 1987, laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has been widely used as the favored treatment for gallbladder lesions. Cholecystoenteric fistula (CF) is an uncommon complication of the gallbladder disease, which has been one of the reasons for the conversion from LC to open cholecystectomy. Here, we have reported four cases of CF managed successfully by laparoscopic approach without conversion to open cholecystectomy. METHODS: During the 4-year period from 2000 to 2004, the medical records of the four patients with CF treated successfully with laparoscopic management at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Taipei were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The study comprised two male and two female patients with ages ranging from 36 to 74 years (median: 53.5 years). All the four patients had right upper quadrant pain. Two of the four patients were detected with pneumobilia by abdominal ultrasonography. One patient was diagnosed with cholecystocolic fistula preoperatively correctly by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and the other one was diagnosed as cholecystoduodenal fistula by magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. Correct preoperative diagnosis of CF was made in two of the four patients with 50% preoperative diagnostic rate. All the four patients underwent LC and closure of the fistula was carried out by using Endo-GIA successfully with uneventful postoperative courses. The hospital stay of the four patients ranged from 7 to 10 d (median, 8 d). CONCLUSION: CF is a known complication of chronic gallbladder disease that is traditionally considered as a contraindication to LC. Correct preoperative diagnosis of CF demands high index of suspicion and determines the success of laparoscopic management for the subset of patients. The difficult laparoscopic repair is safe and effective in the experienced hands of laparoscopic surgeons. (+info)
Endoscopic management of postoperative bile leaks.
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BACKGROUND: Significant bile leak as an uncommon complication after biliary tract surgery may constitute a serious and difficult management problem. Surgical management of biliary fistulae is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Biliary endoscopic procedures have become the treatment of choice for management of biliary fistulae. METHODS: Ninety patients presented with bile leaks after cholecystectomy (open cholecystectomy in 45 patients, cholecystectomy with common bile duct exploration in 20 and laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 25). The presence of bile leaks was confirmed by ERCP and the appearance of bile in percutaneous drainage of abdominal collections. Of the 90 patients with postoperative bile leaks, 18 patients had complete transaction of the common bile duct by ERCP and were subjected to bilioenteric anastomosis. In the remaining patients after cholangiography and localization of the site of bile leaks, therapeutic procedures like sphincterotomy, biliary stenting and nasobiliary drainage (NBD) were performed. If residual stones were seen in the common bile duct, sphincterotomy was followed by stone extraction using dormia basket. Nasobiliary drain or stents of 7F size were placed according to the standard techniques. The NBD was removed when bile leak stopped and closure of the fistula confirmed cholangiographically. The stents were removed after an interval of 6-8 weeks. RESULTS: Bile leaks in 72 patients occurred in the cystic duct (38 patients), the common bile duct (30), and the right hepatic duct (4). Of the 72 patients with post-operative bile leak, 24 had associated retained common bile duct stones and 1 had ascaris in common bile duct. All the 72 patients were subjected to therapeutic procedures including sphincterotomy with stone extraction followed by biliary stenting (24 patients), removal of ascaris and biliary stenting (1), sphincterotomy with biliary stenting (18), sphincterotomy with NBD (12), biliary stenting alone (12), and NBD alone (5). Bile leaks stopped in all patients at a median interval of 3 days (range 3-16 days) after endoscopic interventions. No difference was observed in efficacy and in time for the treatment of bile leak by sphincterotomy with endoprosthesis or endoprosthesis alone in patients with bile leak after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Post-cholecystectomy bile leaks occur most commonly in the cystic duct and associated common bile duct stones are found in one-third of cases. Endoscopic therapy is safe and effective in the management of bile leaks and fistulae after surgery. Sphincterotomy with endoprosthesis or endoprosthesis alone is equally effective in the management of postoperative bile leak. (+info)
Occult cystobiliary communication presenting as postoperative biliary leakage after hydatid liver surgery: are there significant preoperative clinical predictors?
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BACKGROUND: Occult cystobiliary communication (CBC) presents with biliary leakage, if the cystobiliary opening cannot be detected and repaired at operation. We investigated the clinical signs associated with the risk of occult CBC in the preoperative period by studying patients who developed biliary leakage after hydatid liver surgery. METHODS: We analyzed the records of 191 patients treated for hydatid liver cyst. Postoperative biliary leakage developed in 41 patients (21.5%). Independent predictive factors were established by logistic regression analysis using clinical parameters, whose cutoff values were determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Postoperative biliary leakage presented as external biliary fistula in 31 (75.6%) of 41 patients, as biliary peritonitis in 6 (14.6%) and as cyst cavity biliary abscess in 4 (9.8%). Independent clinical predictors of occult CBC, represented by biliary leakage, were alkaline phosphatase > 250 U/L, total bilirubin > 17.1 micromol/L, direct bilirubin > 6.8 micromol/L, gamma-glutamyl transferase > 34.5 U/L, eosinophils > 0.09 and cyst diameter > 8.5 cm. Multilocular or degenerate cysts increased the risk of biliary leakage (p = 0.012). Postoperative complication rates were 53.7% in the patients with biliary leakage, and 10.0% (p < 0.001) in those without. The mean postoperative hospital stay was longer in patients with biliary leakage (14.3 [and standard deviation {SD} 1.9] d) than in those without (7.3 [SD 2.3] d) (p < 0.001). Nineteen (61.3%) of 31 biliary fistulae closed spontaneously within 10 days. The remaining 12 (38.7%) fistulae closed within 7 days after endoscopic sphincterotomy. CONCLUSION: Factors that predict occult CBC due to hydatid liver cyst were identified. These factors should allow the likelihood of CBC to be determined and, thus, indicate the need for additional procedures during operation to prevent the complications of biliary leakage. (+info)
Mirizzi's syndrome.
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A case is described emphasising rare complication of gallstone disease: the Mirizzi syndrome in which an impacted gallstone in the Hartmann's pouch or cystic duct causes common hepatic duct obstruction and by eroding a fistula. Diagnosis is made by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and treatment includes cholecystectomy. (+info)
Therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and related modalities have many roles in hepatobiliary hydatid disease.
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The authors report their experience about 8 cases of intrabiliary rupture of hepatobiliary hydatid disease, and add an algorithm for treatment. To our opinion, the use of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in the management of hepatobiliary hydatid disease was not stated properly in their proposed algorithm. According to the algorithm, the use of ERCP and related modalities was only stated in the case of postoperative biliary fistulae. We think that postoperative persistent fistula is not a sole indication, there are many indications for ERCP and related techniques namely sphincterotomy, extraction, nasobiliary drainage and stenting, in the treatment algorithm before or after surgery. (+info)
Biliary stone causing afferent loop syndrome and pancreatitis.
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We report the case of an 84-year-old female who had a partial gastrectomy with Billroth-II anastomosis 24 years ago for a benign peptic ulcer who now presented an acute pancreatitis secondary to an afferent loop syndrome. The syndrome was caused by a gallstone that migrated through a cholecystoenteric fistula. This is the first description in the literature of a biliary stone causing afferent loop syndrome. (+info)
Spontaneous cholecystocutaneous fistula: a rare complication of gallbladder disease.
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CONTEXT: Spontaneous cholecystocutaneous abscess or fistula is an extremely uncommon complication secondary to cholecystitis. Over the past 50 years fewer than 20 cases of spontaneous cholecystocutaneous fistulas have been described in the medical literature. We here report a case of subcutaneous gallstone as a rare clinical presentation of the already uncommon cholecystocutaneous fistula. CASE REPORT: An 81-year-old man presented with a large subcutaneous abscess in the right subcostal area with surrounding cellulitis and crepitus. An abdominal computed tomography scan showed two subcutaneous gallstones and communication between the abscess and the gallbladder. Cholecystectomy was performed and the abdominal wall abscess was drained externally. This case report demonstrates that maintaining a high degree of suspicion of this rare entity is helpful in achieving correct preoperative diagnosis, and that computed tomography scan should be performed in all cases of unexplained abdominal wall suppuration or cellulitis. (+info)
A case of biliary gastric fistula following percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma.
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Percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA) is an effective and safe therapeutic modality in the management of liver malignancies, performed with ultrasound guidance. Potential complications of RFA include liver abscess, ascites, pleural effusion, skin burn, hypoxemia, pneumothorax, subcapsular hematoma, hemoperitoneum, liver failure, tumour seeding, biliary lesions. Here we describe for the first time a case of biliary gastric fistula occurred in a 66-year old man with a Child's class A alcoholic liver cirrhosis as a complication of RFA of a large hepatocellular carcinoma lesion in the III segment. In the light of this case, RFA with injection of saline between the liver and adjacent gastrointestinal tract, as well as laparoscopic RFA, ethanol injection (PEI), or other techniques such as chemoembolization, appear to be more indicated than percutaneous RFA for large lesions close to the gastrointestinal tract. (+info)