Percutaneous management of benign biliary strictures with balloon dilation and self-expanding metallic stents.

Seventy patients with benign biliary strictures were treated by means of percutaneous balloon dilation and stenting. Patients with stenoses relapsing during catheter stenting (18/70) were treated with self-expanding metallic stents. Results were evaluated in 56 patients; in patients without sclerosing cholangitis (n = 47) the patency rate with both modalities of treatment was 96%, while in the patients with secondary sclerosing cholangitis (n = 9), it was 33%, for a total success rate of 86%. The average follow-up was 23 months (range 3-72 months). Major complications included one death for septic shock (1%), three severe hemorrhages (4%), two of which required arterial embolization, two pleural effusions (3%), and one liver abscess following arterial embolization. Moderate fever for 1-2 days was a common finding after percutaneous puncture and balloon dilation. Percutaneous management of benign biliary strictures so far has been attempted only in surgical failures or in complicated cases. In view of our midterm results it may well become the initial treatment in many patients.