Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage--twelve years' experience.

Our experience with percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage in a total of 362 patients carried out between January 1977 and December 1988 is described. Three hundred and fifty drains were correctly placed, and results were good in 285 (81.5%), fair in 53 (15.1%) and poor in 12 (3.4%). In 12 of the total number of cases (3.4%) it was not possible to position the drain effectively. The mortality rate of the method was 0.8% (3 cases). Complications were as follows: obstruction 7 (1.9%), dislodgement 15 (4.1%), hemobilia 15 (4.1%), hemoperitoneum 1 (0.2%), cholangitis 6 (1.6%), and choleperitoneum 10 (2.7%). In view of the good results and low incidence of complications the conclusion is that in skilled hands, percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage is a very useful method that should be available in any center specializing in hepatobiliary surgery.