[Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography with an ultra-fine needle (Chiba) in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of cholestasis].

The results are reported from the application of percutaneous transhepatal cholangiography (PTC) to 17 patients with cholestasis--II with extrahepatal cholestasis, 4 with primary biliary cirrhosis and 2--with cholelithiasis. PTC was 100 per cent successful in the patients with dilated biliary ducts, and in those with not dilated ones--in 66.60% (totally in 88.24%). In six of the patients PTC was successful as early as the first liver puncture, and six--with the second and in three--with the third (in two patients with not dilated biliary ducts PTC failed). After PTC performance, pains in epigastrium and under right hypochondrial region appeared in the majority of the patients (no grave complications and lethal cases were observed). Via PTC an accurate diagnosis could be made, the causes of biliary ducts obstructions being precosely localized and specified in 80 to 88.6 per cent. PTC supplements and defines more accurately the clinical diagnosis in 35.29 per cent, contributing to the making of an accurate diagnosis for the first time in 29.42 per cent of the examined patients.