Therapeutic strategy for intrahepatic lithiasis.

Among the various benign biliary tract diseases, intrahepatic lithiasis is the most refractory condition to treat surgically. Recently, endoscopic treatment (mainly cholangiofiberscopic lithotomy) has been more and more frequently employed. A nationwide survey by questionnaire was conducted in 1985 to clarify the exact status of the current therapies for intrahepatic lithiasis in Japan. A total of 143 institutions (33.4%) responded to our questionnaire, and 2614 cases over a 10-year-period were collected and analyzed. Operation alone was performed in 53.8%, operation plus endoscopic treatment in 38.6%, operation plus dissolution therapy in 5.5%, operation plus endoscopic treatment and dissolution therapy in 0.04% and endoscopic treatment alone in 2.1%. The most common treatment was surgery. This was employed in 97.9% of all the patients, but endoscopic treatment was added in 40.7% of the cases to extract stones mainly intra- and/or post-operatively. Dissolution therapy was carried out occasionally, but with poor results. Conducting both adequate surgical biliary drainage and cholangiofiberscopic lithotomy may result in a marked improvement in the treatment of this intractable disease.