Fine needle cholangiography in the diagnosis of persistent jaundice. A case report.

The fine needle technic utilizes a sleeveless, thin, flexible needle for transhepatic cholangiography. This needle can enter small or normal bile ducts in a high percentage of patients. The value of fine needle cholangiography is illustrated in a patient with a stenosis of the common hepatic duct and a left hepatodochalduodenal fistula which eluded diagnosis by all other methods. The use of this technic is described as an alternative procedure to endoscopic retrograde cholangiography when the latter is technically impossible or as an adjunct to intraoperative extrahepatic cholangiography.