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Biliary laser lithotripsy was perfor

Self-expanding metal stents have, when introduced in their constrained form through gastrointestinal and biliary strictures, a relatively small diameter. Once placed through the stricture and released, however, they expand to a much larger internal diameter, thus giving rise to sufficient palliative reopening of these strictures. Since metal stents are usually not removable, their primary use has been in malignant stenoses. Benign strictures should be treated with metal stents only in exceptional situations. For palliation of dysphagia in esophagocardial malignancies, metal stents have been shown to be associated with significantly fewer initial complications on placement than plastic tubes. The long-term fate of both stent types seems to be similar. In the palliation of malignant jaundice, metal stents were demonstrated to have a significantly longer patency rate, resulting in a favourable cost-benefit ratio despite the high price of metal stents. Continued developments are necessary to further reduce long-term complications and effectiveness.

Laparoscopic cholecystotomy (LCT) was attempted in 34 patients with biliary type symptoms; 33 patients suffered from gallbladder stones and one patient from gallbladder polyps. In one patient the gallbladder was not accessible with the laparoscope due to extensive adhesions. In the other patients endoscopic removal of stones and polyps was possible in all cases. In the first five patients the gallbladder was drained with a Foley type catheter at the end of the procedure; in the other patients the incision of the gallbladder was closed primarily with clips and fibrin glue. At the beginning of the series two cases of complications were observed: balloon catheter deflation due to material defect and postoperative bleeding into the gallbladder; after conventional cholecystectomy the two patients made an uneventful recovery. LCT is a one-session procedure suitable for removal of symptomatic stones in well functioning gallbladders with no restrictions concerning the composition, number or size of the stones.