Endoscopic magnetic cholecystodigestive anastomoses: personal technique for palliative treatment of distal bile duct obstruction.

A new type of endoscopic surgery (magnetic cholecystodigestive anastomoses) is presented as an alternative to conventional palliative treatment of mechanical obstruction with icterus located below the bile duct inlet. By means of endoscopic technique, two clinically usable methods of creating delayed magnetic cholecystogastric anastomoses and one modality of implanting cholecystoenteric and enteroenteric anastomosis have been worked out in the experiment conducted on 50 mongrels with mechanical icterus. Ring-shaped or rectangular magnets were implanted in the gallbladder through laparoscopic cholecystostomy. Implantation into the stomach was accompanied by simultaneous gastroscopy. In clinical conditions, four endoscopic cholecystogastric anastomoses and one cholecystoduodenal anastomosis have been performed on patients suffering from malignant obstruction of distal bile duct due to cancer of the head of the pancreas, making any radical surgery pointless. The preliminary results indicate that endoscopic magnetic cholecystodigestive anastomoses can serve as a form of palliative treatment of distal bile duct malignant obstructions.