Background/Aim : Common bile duct (CBD) stones may cause jaundice, cholangitis, or pancreatitis. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) may be needed whenever endoscopic procedure are failed to extract common bile duct stones. The aim of this study is to provide the standard for patient's best choice on ESWL for treatment of CBD stones resistant to endoscopic extraction.
Materials and Methods : Fourty-six patients failed in endoscopic stone extraction including mechanical lithotripsy were treated by ESWL. In all patients, endoscopic sphincterotomy and nasobiliary drainage tube was done before ESWL using the ultrasonography for stone localization with a spark-gap type lithotriptor. Patients were sedated with an intravenous injection of 50mg of Demerol. None were treated under general anesthesia.
Results : Overall complete clearance rate of CBD stone was 89.1% (41/46). In 82.6% of the patients, the stones were extracted endoscopically after ESWL, and spontaneous passage was observed in 6.5%. In the clearance rate after ESWL, there were no noticeable differences with regard to number (single:82.8%, two or three: 100%, more than three: 100%) and size of the stone (less than 33mm: 92.9%, 33mm or larger: 83.3%), whereas there were significant differences with regard to the ratio of sum of long-axis length of the all stones to sum of long-axis length of the CBD excluding stone (1:2.4, 1:2.1) and diameter of the largest stone to diameter of CBD excluding stone (1:0.9, 1:0.4) for patients with complete clearance compared with those without.
Conclusion : We propose that stones without the fragments are travelable sufficient space in CBD or extractable sufficient diameter of CBD regardless of stone size and number should be treated by other technique to prevent time and cost consuming, such as percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopylithotomy.