Lesions after sphincterotomy.

Within the last years 70 transduodenal sphincterotomies at stringent indication have been carried out at the Department of Surgery of the RWTH Aachen. This means 9.2% of all operations caused by cholelithiasis. The lethality was 4.2%. The following postoperative complications where stated: a) the bleeding from the divided duct of sphincter with or without haemobile (1.4%), b) the post-sphincterotomy pancreatitis (9.5%) owing to lesion of the pancreatic duct, c) the retroperitoneal abscess with biliary peritonitis (1.8%), d) insufficiency of the duodenal wall or duodenal fistula (1.9%), e) postoperative disturbances of passage of the transsected sphincter Oddi. The haemorrhagic necrosing pancreatitis, the insufficiency of the duodenal wall, the retroperitoneal abscess and the bleeding postsphincterotomy force us to immediate re-operation, while functional disturbances like a spasm or an oedema are controllable pharmacologically and functionally for a short time.