Intraductal infusion of mono-octanoin: experience in 24 patients with retained common-duct stones.

Mono-octanoin (glyceryl-l-mono-octanoate), 2-4 ml/h, was instilled into the bile or hepatic ducts of twenty-four patients with retained gallstones after cholecystectomy and choledochotomy. After treatment, fifteen patients no longer had stones. In five the stones were smaller or reduced in number; and in four of these the stones were extracted mechanically via the T-tube tract. Mechanical extraction was also possible in one of the four patients with unaltered stones. With a battery-operated pump or hand injection, mono-octanoin can be safely infused as early as the 8th postoperative day and some patients can continue the treatment outside hospital.