Percutaneous transhepatic biliary interventional procedures for treatment of biliary stricture following orthotopic liver transplantation

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Biliary tract complications are one of the most common postoperative problems after liver transplantation.Balloon dilation and percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) has become an effective method to improve biliary complication after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT).

To evaluate the balloon dilation and PTBD in the treatment of biliary stricture after OLT through case follow up.DESIGN, TIME AND

A total of 53 consecutive patients underwent interventional procedures to treat biliary stricture after OLT in the Department of Radiology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University from July 1999 to March 2007 and were recruited for this study. The series included 46 men and 7 women, with 17-64 years of age. After OLT transplantation, all patients had abnormally elevated serum bilirubin level, and confirmed to suffer from obstruction of biliary tract by CT or MRI examinations.

Of 50 patients who received PTBD treatment, 36 underwent PTBD through right bile duct, 14 underwent bilateral (right bile duct and left bile duct) PTBD with 6 patients through left bile duct in the second treatment. A total of 13 underwent balloon dilation, and 3 were subjected to balloon dilation alone.MAIN OUTCOME

An averaged 9.6 months of follow up was performed in 53 patients to observe obstructive jaundice recurrence induced by abnormally elevated serum bilirubin level after percutaneous transhepatic biliary interventional procedures.

Follow up results showed satisfactory clinical outcome with obstructive jaundice resolved in all patients, except one patient, who received treatment with T tube, died of acute rejection at month 1 during the follow up, and one patient with liver failure had extremely poor prognosis after discharge at month 1 during the follow up. Obstructive jaundice was recovered even healed and serum bilirubin level was decreased to normal level in 51 patients at the end of follow-up. Primary success rate was 79% (42 in 53 cases), and assisted success rate was 21%. The first interventional procedure failed to treat obstructive jaundice in 5 patients. Obstructive jaundice recurred after primary percutaneous procedure in other 6 cases. No procedure related severe complications happened.

Balloon dilation and PTBD are safe to treat biliary tract complication after OLT, without complication.