Mehmet Karabulut, Murat Gönenç, Halil Alış

Clinic of General Surgery, Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract

Bile duct injuries are among the most dreadful complications of cholecystectomy. As laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become increasingly popular, the incidence of this complication increased and has remained unchanged in spite the learning curve being completed. A 50-year-old female underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy for gallstone disease. A complicated bile duct injury occurred during the procedure. As the injury was immediately recognized, it was treated with concomitant hepaticojejunostomy. In the postoperative period, biliary fistula, which was assumed to be the result of an anastomotic leak, was encountered. Diagnostic and therapeutic percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage was considered. It revealed that the anastomosis was intact and the source of biliary leak was an aberrant right posterior sectorial branch. A severe bleeding through the biliary catheter occurred due to transmigration of the catheter into the portal vein. Bleeding was controlled with embolization by the interventional radiologist. The patient thereafter was re-operated, and the leakage was sealed by ligation of the aberrant right posterior sectorial branch. The postoperative period was uneventful. As long as cholecystectomy is performed, bile duct injuries will always exist. Therefore, every abdominal surgeon should be aware of possible consequences of complications related to this procedure.

Keywords: Cholecystectomy, bile duct injury, hepaticojejunostomy, percutaneous biliary drainage


 

Ethics Committee Approval

Ethics committee approval was received for this study from the ethics committee of Bakırköy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital.

Peer Review

Externally peer-reviewed.

Author Contributions

Concept - M.K.; Design - M.K.; Supervision - M.G., H.A.; Data Collection and/or Processing - M.K.; Analysis and/or Interpretation - H.A., M.G.; Literature Review - M.K.; Writer - M.G.; Critical Review - H.A.

Conflict of Interest

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Financial Disclosure

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.