Safety and efficacy of therapeutic endoscopic interventions in the management of biliary leak.

Endoscopic procedures which reduce the trans-papillary pressure gradient are the treatment of choice for management of biliary leaks. We analyzed the data of 102 patients with biliary leak managed by various endoscopic procedures like endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES), ES with stenting, stenting alone or nasobiliary drainage (NBD) alone; 90 of these patients had developed a leak after cholecystectomy. In the post-cholecystectomy group, cannulation was successful in 79 patients; therapeutic intervention was not possible in 14 of them due to complete transection of common bile duct in 6, and leak proximal to ligature in 8. In the remaining 65 patients, ES with stenting was done in 52, stent alone in 6, ES alone in 5 and NBD alone in 2. All 12 patients in other etiology group were treated with ES plus stenting. The leak closed in a mean of 3 (1-10) days in all patients. Stents were removed after 6-8 weeks. Endoscopic procedures are effective in managing biliary leaks.