Stent endoprosthesis has been advocated as an alternative to internal-external catheter drainage for decompression of biliary obstruction, but drawbacks have never been specifically analyzed, to our knowledge. A retrospective review of 118 biliary stent endoprostheses placed in 113 patients assessed the frequency, nature, and treatability of significant complications. Complications were categorized as early (morbidity or mortality within the first 30 days) or late (after 30 days). The early complication rate was 17% (19/113); the late complication rate, 31% (32/102). Early complications were most often due to unstable stent positioning in technically difficult procedures involving periportal obstruction (4/8), while the most common late problems were lumen occlusion (23/102 [23%]), migrations (6/102 [6%]), and tumor overgrowth of the stent (3/102 [3%]). Neither the histologic features nor the location of the primary tumor correlated with the potential for long-term stent dysfunction. Specific treatment of complications was carried out in 17 of 102 patients (17%) and almost invariably required readmission and remanipulation or de novo biliary drainage.

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Complications of the afferent loop are traditionally managed only by surgical revision. Transhepatic biliary drainage was used in the palliative treatment of two different afferent loop problems in critically ill patients for whom surgery was unsuccessful. Transcholecystic cholangiography was used to opacify the nondilated bile ducts and proved valuable for the transhepatic biliary catheterization procedure. There were no complications, and both patients showed clinical improvement.

The authors describe their experience with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in a larger series of patients than previously reported in order to acquaint physicians with both its effectiveness for dissolution of common bile duct calculi and the limitations of its use. Ten patients with 13 biliary calculi underwent percutaneous stone dissolution treatment with the experimental cholesterol solvent, MTBE. Three stones completely dissolved within 30 minutes, seven were reduced in size, and three were visibly unaffected. All stones not completely dissolved were easily extracted by means of a stone basket except for one in a patient taken to surgery. Although MTBE perfusion is an effective technique for management of biliary calculi, practitioners should be aware that its use is quite time consuming and its odor difficult to control.

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