RESUMO
Thirty-eight patients [twenty males and eighteen females their mean age was 53.7 years] with surgical obstructive jaundice were assessed clinically, biochemically and ultrasonographically. The causes of obstruction were calcular [12 patients], postoperative benign stricture [5 patients] and malignant obstruction [21 patients]. Their mean bilirubin value was 10.6 +/- 0.78 mg%. Thirteen patients had cholangitis. ERCP and endoscopic stenting were in all of them. Stenting succeeded in 81.6%. Nine patients with malignant obstructive jaundice were left with their stent for permanent palliative drainage. In 22 patients, the stent was used for preoperative preparation without added morbidity or mortality. The stent was dislodged or obstructed in nine patients. The stenting procedure was repeated in two of them. The other seven patients were subjected to biliary drainage operation. Endoscopic biliary stenting has an undoubted value in preoperative preparation of jaundiced patients as well as in long-term drainage in patients with inoperable carcinoma