Usefulness of Postoperative Spiral Computed Tomography Combined with Drip Infusion Cholangiography in Patients with Congenital Biliary Dilatation

Akio Odaka, Masashi Fujioka, Hideyuki Ishida, Masakazu Tada, Shigehisa Inokuma, Shin Takada, Hirofumi Yamada, Kazuyuki Shimomura, Nobuo Murata and Yasuo Idezuki

Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical School

Spiral computed tomography combined with drip infusion cholangiography (DIC-SCT) has come into widespread use as a new method for examinating patients with biliary diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of DIC-SCT during the postoperative period in patients with congenital biliary dilatation. DIC-SCT was performed on 7 patients who had undergone excision of a cyst with hepaticoenterostomy for congenital biliary dilatation. Their age at surgery ranged from 4 months to 40 years. The follow-up period after surgery ranged from 10 to 127 months. In all cases, the first branch of the intrahepatic bile duct, the anastomotic site and intestine were recognized by DIC-SCT. The size of the anastomosis ranged from 4 to 25 mm in transverse diameter and from 3 to 20 mm in occipitofrontal diameter. In one type IV-A case, dilatation of the right intrahepatic bile duct and obstruction of the left intrahepatic bile duct were revealed. This study demonstrates that DIC-CT is suitable for postoperative examination of the anastomotic site and monitoring for cholestasis in patients with congenital biliary dilatation.

Key words
congenital biliary dilatation, spiral computed tomography, drip infusion cholangiography

Reprint requests
Akio Odaka Department of Surgery, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical School 1981 Tsujido, Kamoda, Kawagoe, 350-8550 JAPAN

Accepted
November 13, 1998

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