title: Intraoperative cholangiography lowers the risk of bile duct injury during cholecystectomy.
abstract: Intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) can help to avoid bile duct injury for at least three reasons. First, IOC shows the immense diversity of the biliary tree and its patterns of biliary anomalies. Thus, IOC is a great provider of profound knowledge concerning the biliary tree. Second, a surgeon, over time, becomes an expert on how to read an IOC. The surgeon then is able to discover whether the patient is at risk for biliary injury. Third, if an injury has already occurred, then an IOC can provide early detection and, if correctly interpreted, the injury is not worsened. Thus, IOC offers an opportunity to prevent error through profound knowledge of biliary diversity and real-time imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of General, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery, Virginia Mason Clinic, 1100 Ninth Avenue, 900 (C6-GSURG), Seattle, WA 98111, USA. gtslwt@vmmc.org
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Traverso
mesh_terms: D001649:Bile Duct Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000601:surgery*; D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000293:injuries*; D002758:Cholangiography; D002763:Cholecystectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D012306:Risk