News Release

What relates to the short-term effectiveness of biliary drainage?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Biliary drainage is performed as a palliative treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. The reduction of serum bilirubin is usually the hallmark of successful biliary drainage. However, some patients may have persistent jaundice or scanty bile output after biliary drainage.

A research team, led by Dr. Chiung-Yu Chen from National Cheng Kung University retrospectively analyzed the clinical and imaging characteristics of these patients in an attempt to identify the factors related to bile output and reduction of serum bilirubin after percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD).

Their was published on November 7, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

The results showed patients with more bile duct visualized on percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography or absence of multiple liver metastases on imaging studies had more bile output after biliary drainage [odds ratio (OR): 8.471, P = 0.010 and OR: 1.959, P = 0.022, respectively]. Patients with prolonged prothrombin time had a slow decrease in serum bilirubin (OR: 0.437, P = 0.005). The median survival time was not significantly different in patients with low or high bile output (75 d vs 125 d, P = 0.573) or in patients with slow or rapid reduction of serum bilirubin (88 d vs 94 d, P = 0.576).

The authors suggested the effectiveness of percutaneous biliary drainage can be properly estimated before the procedure. Patient should be observed for daily bile output as well as the reduction of serum bilirubin. An initially well functioning biliary drainage does not link to a longer survival of patients and further efforts to maintain biliary patency are required.

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Reference: Tsai HM, Chuang CH, Lin XZ, Chen CY. Factors relating to the short term effectiveness of percutaneous biliary drainage for hilar cholangiocarcinoma. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(41): 5206-5210

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5206.asp

Correspondence to: Chiung-Yu Chen, MD, Departments of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 704, Taiwan, China. chiungyu@mail.ncku.edu.tw

Telephone: +886-6-2353535-2679 Fax: +886-6-2766116

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.


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