Role of a short-term stent-trial in a patient with biliary stricture and portal hypertensive biliopathy: long-term outcome result.

In portal hypertensive biliopathy (PHB) secondary to portal thrombosis, multiple factors can lead to symptoms and alteration of liver tests. The compression of the common bile duct (CBD) by peribiliary varices, portal vein thrombus or cavernoma, or the presence of biliary stone and an associated ischemic stricture are proposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of symptoms (jaundice, abdominal pain, fever) and alterations of liver tests. We present a case of a young HCV-infected male patient in which multiple factors in PHB as mentioned above were present. Clinical and biochemical evaluations after a short-term biliary stent and after its removal (stent-trial) showed the major role of the ischemic-associated stricture and rule out other factors in our patient. Long-term data support this result.