Intraoperative transcystic extraction of common bile duct stones by a Dormia-Pironneau catheter.

During cholecystectomy 21 patients were subjected to transcystic extraction of common bile duct stones by a Dormia-Pironneau catheter; this was the only treatment used for lithiasis of the common bile duct, in the absence of papillary lesions. Of these patients, 14 were followed up from one to three years after surgery. Clinical and radiological controls revealed the patients' complete recovery from the biliary disease. Our late results thus warrant the method. We suggest that is should be employed in all cases in which the presence of minute stones in the gallbladder, a wide cystic duct, and the absence of papillary lesions suggest migration of gallstones from the gallbladder to the common bile duct.