Multiple plastic stents for benign extrahepatic biliary strictures: report of a case

The etiology of benign bile duct strictures is heterogeneous. Many of them may be secondary to intraoperative injury such as injuries occurring during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The spectrum of symptoms at presentation varies from subclinical disease with elevation of liver function tests to complete biliary obstruction with jaundice and hyperbilirubinemia or external biliary fistula in the case of bile duct injury. Long-term consequences may lead to secondary biliary cirrhosis. This publication reports a case of a 49-year-old woman with symptomatic gallstone disease who underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in November 2006. She underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography due to jaundice, fever and abdominal pain. Then she underwent left hemi-hepatectomy in October 2008 and transplantation of the liver in January 2014. Traditionally, surgical repair has been the preferred approach in benign biliary strictures, but there is an increasing trend for use of minimally invasive endoscopic therapy in these patients.