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Choledocholithiasis: New Approach to an Old Problem

The traditional indications for common bile duct (CBD) exploration resulted in a large number of unnecessary manipulations of the bile ducts. The same is now true of the widespread use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

With the advent of magnetic resonance imaging cholangiography, which can clearly demonstrate CBD calculi by means of a noninvasive, complication-free technology, we should abandon the old indications for CBD exploration and be more conservative regarding the diagnosis and management of this condition.

Source: Jorge Cervantes & Guillermo Rojas, Excerpt from Choledocholithiasis: New Approach to an Old Problem, World Journal of Surgery, July…

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Resources

The Sunflower Study

A randomised controlled trial to establish the clinical and cost effectiveness of expectant management versus pre-operative imaging with magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreaticogram (MRCP) in patients with symptomatic gallstones undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy at low or moderate risk of common bile duct stones:

Empendium

Choledocholithiasis is the presence of gallstones in the bile ducts. The gallstones may spontaneously pass to the duodenum, but most of them become blocked in the common bile duct or in the sphincter of Oddi.

DoveMed

Choledocholithiasis is the presence of stones (gallstones) in the common bile duct (CBD). The presence of even one stone in the CBD is called Choledocholithiasis

JETem

Choledocholithiasis is characterized by the presence of gallstones in the CBD. As one ages, the common bile duct enlarges, facilitating the passage of a gallstone into the CBD increasing the likelihood of developing choledocholithiasis.1 Complications associated with choledocholithiasis include pancreatitis, biliary cirrhosis, and acute cholangitis.

Osmosis

The word choledocholithiasis comes from choledocho, which is the latin word for common bile duct, and lithiasis, which is the medical term for stone.