Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy for hilar cholangiocarcinoma: the first trial in Thailand.

BACKGROUND

There are many palliative treatments for patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction, e.g. endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with stents, percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) or surgery. We propose a new technique by using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) with fluoroscopy to perform hepaticogastrostomy for palliative drainage far from the site of tumor to avoid tumor obstruction.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Between December 2005 and June 2006, two patients with severe jaundice by hilar cholangiocarcinoma were treated with this new procedure. The first case was a 44-year female post partial resection of tumor and Roux en Y hepaticojejunostomy and the second case was a 48-year male post ERCP and right hepatic stent. We used an electronic convex curved linear-array echo-endoscope with fluoroscope guided to drain left dilated intrahepatic duct to the stomach by inserting 8 Fr 60 mm metallic wallstent via lesser curvature. We performed under general anesthesia and followed-up every two weeks.

RESULTS

There were former two patients failed to place the stents. Hepaticogastrotomy of both patients were our first successful trial but stent site of the first case was not good because the insertion was at esophagogastric junction. Total bilirubin of first and second case fell from 38.4 mg/dl to 27.3 mg/dl and 22.0 mg/dl to 3.4 mg/ dl in two weeks, respectively. No immediate complication was found and oral diet was well succeeded on the next day after procedure in both cases. The first case was dead after 32 days of operation from sepsis and hepatic failure. The second case was clinically much improved after 3 months and died from liver failure after 6 months and 10 days.

CONCLUSION

This new interventional EUS-guided hepaticogastrostomy is safe, feasible and may provide an alternative to surgery or PTBD or failed ERCP. It can improve the palliative treatment in hilar lesions because it's internal drainage and far from tumor site that promote fast recovery. However, long term study is still necessary to evaluate the results and cost-effectiveness of this technique.