Follow up studies on various reconstruction methods of the biliary tract including our new method (Roux Y-duodenojejunal anastomosis).

Thirty six patients with benign diseases of the biliary tract (14 patients with congenital choledochal dilatation, 15 patients with postoperative stricture and 7 patients with others) were divided into three groups: 21 patients who underwent a Roux Y (RY), 7 patients who underwent a jejunal interposition (IP) and 8 patients who underwent a side to side anastomosis between the jejunal limb of the Roux Y and the duodenum (RY-DJ). The RY-DJ was designed to decompress the Roux Y jejunal limb and to allow an inflow of bile into the duodenum. Significant complications, including cholangitis, infection, or abdominal pain, developed in 10 of the patients with RY (48 per cent), 7 of the patients with IP (100 per cent) and 1 of the patients with RY-DJ (13 per cent). None had a postoperative peptic ulcer. Simultaneous scintigraphy showed the time required for the two agents, 99mTc-IDA and 111In-DTPA, to mix at the upper jejunum, which revealed that the time taken by the patients with RY-DJ was similar to that of the patients with IP and to that of healthy controls. The time was markedly longer in the patients with RY, presumably due to a prominent stasis of the bile tracer in the Roux Y jejunal limb. Our new method (RY-DJ) for reconstruction of the extrahepatic biliary tract is more physiological and has less postoperative complications than other conventional methods.