The use of an oral choledochoscope for cicatricial strictures of the common bile duct

Abstract

The aim was to optimize the method of endoscopic bougienage in common bile duct strictures using the oral choledochoscope. Materials: the analysis of 177 patients with bile duct strictures of the main group and 38 patients of the comparison group. The nature and history of bile duct strictures, as well as the possibilities and effectiveness of application the oral choledochoscope in the narrowing of strictures in difficult clinical situations have been studied. Results: the method proposed by us was applied in 5 patients, in complex clinical cases when, under X-ray control, it was not possible to hold the string conductor outside the stricture zone. Comparing the proportion of effective and ineffective minimally invasive interventions, a higher rate was observed in the main group by 12.1% (91.0%) than in the comparison group (78.9%) with a statistically significant difference in the proportions (p = 0.0329, t. e. p <0.05). Conclusion: the introduction of the bougienage method with the choledochoscope allowed a statistically significant reduction in the failure rate of minimally invasive treatment of common bile duct strictures in the main group of observables.