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Biliary Leakage After Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery: A Classification System to Guide the Proper Percutaneous Treatment

  • Clinical Investigation
  • Biliary
  • Published:
CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the effectiveness of percutaneous approaches to treat bile leak and to propose an anatomical classification of biliary fistula to guide the most appropriate percutaneous approach.

Materials and Methods

Fifty-six patients with bile leakage after hepatobiliary surgery were included. Based on preoperative images and postoperative fistulogram images, three categories of bile leakage were defined. Every category was treated with non-surgical approaches (internal–external percutaneous drainage, percutaneous/endoscopic biliodigestive anastomosis with rendez-vous technique and biliodigestive percutaneous anastomosis with totally radiologic rendez-vous).

Results

In 44/56 (78%) patients, anatomical conformation was “direct communication” (bile ducts upstream from the leak present a direct communication with downstream ducts) and their treatment was conventional percutaneous drainage. In 5/56 (9%), anatomical conformation was “indirect communication” (bile ducts upstream from the leak communicate with downstream ducts through a bile collection) and treatment was percutaneous/endoscopic rendez-vous technique. In 7/56 (12%), anatomical conformation was “no communication” (ducts upstream from the leak are completely excluded from ducts downstream) and treatment was totally radiologic rendez-vous. In 54/56 (96%) during the follow-up, cholangiography revealed complete resolution of the leak without residual stenosis and drains were removed. Complications occurred in 12/56 (21%). Procedure-related mortality was 0%. Ten patients, after > 6 months from resolution of their fistula and drain removal, died due to cancer recurrence. Currently, 44/56 patients (77%) at long-term follow-up (> 12 months) are alive, without bile leak.

Conclusion

Our classification helps to choose the most proper percutaneous approach in all kinds of bile leakage, even in severe cases; these are safe techniques with a high success rate.

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Abbreviations

PTBD:

Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage

ISGLS:

International Study Group of Liver Surgery

CT:

Computed tomography

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Funding

This study was not supported by any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Verona, P.le L.A. Scuro 10, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Giancarlo Mansueto, Francesco Lorenzo Gatti, Enrico Boninsegna & Alberto Contro

  2. Department of Surgery, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Simone Conci & Alfredo Guglielmi

Authors
  1. Giancarlo Mansueto
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  2. Francesco Lorenzo Gatti
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  3. Enrico Boninsegna
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  4. Simone Conci
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  5. Alfredo Guglielmi
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  6. Alberto Contro
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francesco Lorenzo Gatti.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Consent for publication was obtained for every individual person’s data included in the study.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Mansueto, G., Gatti, F.L., Boninsegna, E. et al. Biliary Leakage After Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery: A Classification System to Guide the Proper Percutaneous Treatment. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol 43, 302–310 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00270-019-02374-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00270-019-02374-8

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