Biliary stricture: a continuing study.

Fortunately, benign stricture is becoming a much less frequently encountered problem in biliary surgery. This must be largely explained by repetitious warnings in the literature and by teachers during the past thirty years. Our efforts now perhaps should be directed toward early recognition and treatment of ductal injuries before irreversible liver injury has occurred. Use of solutions to flush ducts and stents warrants further study, and the use of percutaneous replaceable stents along with biliary solvents in the hope that better prognosis of such fibroses ducts is justified. The true morbidity and mortality of biliary stricture cannot be accurately known unless a group of patients can be accurately followed throughout their entire lifetime when a final appraisal can be made.