title: Non-surgical management of bile duct stones.
abstract: Endoscopic sphincterotomy with stone extraction is the non-surgical method of choice for treatment of choledocholithiasis in patients unfit for surgery or with previous cholecystectomy. Its success rate is 85-90%. Many adjunctive methods have been developed to increase the clearance rate after initial failure and are reviewed in this paper. Collaboration among the surgeon, endoscopist and radiologist offers the patient a high opportunity for successful clearance of common bile duct (CBD) stones with the least morbidity and mortality. The application of endoscopic sphincterotomy combined with laparoscopic cholecystectomy to younger patients is now debated.
authors.affiliation: Service des Maladies du Foie et de l'Appareil Digestif, Hôpital de Bicêtre, Kremlin-Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pelletier
mesh_terms: D002763:Cholecystectomy; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000601:surgery*; D042882:Gallstones / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D016717:Sphincterotomy, Endoscopic / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data