[Percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy. A new approach to the diagnosis of bile duct tumors].

New surgical and radiotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of carcinoma of the bile ducts require histologic diagnosis as well as diagnostic delineation of the tumor. Percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy fulfils these requirements. This technique combines the advantages of radiological and endoscopic diagnostic procedures in the biliary tract. Cholangioscopy has been performed successfully in four patients with malignant tumors of the bile ducts and we did not observe any complications.