[Surgery in patients with obstructive jaundice caused by carcinoma (author's transl)].

Malignant disease obstructing the bile ducts is diagnosed in most cases at a time, when radical surgery is not possibly any more. Diagnostic procedures applied up to now are not suited for early diagnosis. 5 years survival rates of patients with carcinoma of the bile ducts are maximally 6%, in patients with carcinoma of the papilla 36%. In the Department of Surgery of the Münster University, 126 such patients have been treated in the recent time; in 104 cases jaundice was apparent clinically. Radical pancreatoduodenectomy could be done only in 24 patients.