Posthepatectomy bile leakage: how to manage.
TL;DR: The incidence of posthepatectomy biliary leakage has decreased over time, while PTD and endoscopic stenting are effective treatment modalities.
Abstract: Background: Biliary leakage after liver resection continues to be reported. Management of bile leakage has changed in recent years, with nowadays non-surgical procedures as the preferred treatment. Methods: Biliary leakage and management were assessed in 381 patients who underwent liver resection between January 2005 and April 2011. Results: The overall rate of biliary leakage after liver resection was 5.0%, with a higher incidence in patients who had undergone concomitant hepaticojejunostomy (HJ; 13.6 vs. 3.2%). Hospital stay (p = 0.047), major resections (p = 0.018), operation time (p = 0.011), and relaparotomy (p = 0.002) were risk factors for postoperative bile leakage. Multivariate analysis identified relaparotomy as an independent factor (OR 4.216, p = 0.034). Bile leakage in patients without HJ (n = 10) was managed in 6 patients by percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTD), and in 3 patients by endoscopic drainage. One patient was treated surgically. All patients with an HJ and postoperative bile leakage (n = 9) underwent PTD. Conclusion: The incidence of posthepatectomy biliary leakage has decreased over time, while PTD and endoscopic stenting are effective treatment modalities. PTD is the treatment of choice in bile leakage after resection combined with HJ.
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TL;DR: The objective of this article was to provide updated information on the recent developments in liver surgery, from preoperative evaluation, to technicality of resection, future liver remnant augmentation and finally, postoperative management of complications.
11 citations
TL;DR: Total operating time and bile duct reconstruction technique (duct-to-duct anastomosis or Rouxen-Y cholangiojejunostomy) and prolonged total operating time are risk factors for bile leak after deceased donor liver transplantation.
Abstract: Objective To evaluate the risk factors and outcome of bile leak after liver transplantation. Methods We undertook a retrospective study of patients who underwent liver transplantation in our institution between January 2010 and January 2014. The characteristics and survival rate of patients with or without bile leak were compared. Results Bile leak was observed in sixteen patients after liver transplantation (2.7% of the total number of patients transplanted). Total operating time and bile duct reconstruction technique (duct-to-duct anastomosis or Rouxen-Y cholangiojejunostomy) were found to differ significantly between patients with and without bile leak in univariate (p = 0.001 and 0.024, respectively) and multivariate analyses (p = 0.012 and 0.026, respectively). There was no difference in the one-year patient survival rate between the two groups. However, two-year patient survival rate was significantly lower in the bile leak group (p = 0.003). Both one-year and two-year graft survival rates were significantly lower in the bile leak group (p = 0.049 and <0.001, respectively). Conclusions Cholangiojejunostomy and prolonged total operating time are risk factors for bile leak after deceased donor liver transplantation. Bile leak reduces graft and patient survival rates after deceased donor liver transplantation.
11 citations
Cites background from "Posthepatectomy bile leakage: how t..."
...Total operating time, relaparotomy, bilioenteric anastomosis, elevated preoperative serum alanine transaminase concentration and laparoscopic surgery are considered to be risk factors for bile leak after hepatectomy [3-5]....
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TL;DR: The outcomes of the endo‐radiological approach to the management of bile leakage after RLDLT with duct‐to‐duct anastomosis (DDA) at a high‐volume center are reviewed.
Abstract: Background and aim Bile leakage is a major complication after right lobe living donor liver transplantation (RLDLT). It can result in significant morbidities and, occasionally, mortalities. Endo-radiology is a non-surgical means that has been used to manage this complication. This study reviews the outcomes of the endo-radiological approach to the management of bile leakage after RLDLT with duct-to-duct anastomosis (DDA) at a high-volume center. Method A retrospective study was conducted on all adult patients who received RLDLT at our center between January 2001 and December 2013. There were 496 RLDLTs performed during the study period. Only patients who had DDA as the only bile duct reconstruction method were included in the study. Results Twelve (3.7%) out of the 328 study subjects developed bile leakage after RLDLT. Six out of these 12 patients were successfully treated with the endo-radiological approach without the need for laparotomy. They had endoscopic retrograde cholangiography with stenting followed by percutaneous drainage of biloma. One of the 12 patients died from recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma 37 months after transplantation. The remaining 11 patients are all alive. Conclusion The endo-radiological approach should be the first-line management for bile leakage for selected patients with DDA as the bile duct reconstruction method.
9 citations
TL;DR: An overview of the relevant terminology applied to hepatic surgery, an approach to the post-operative management, and an aid to developing an awareness of complications so as to facilitate better confidence in this complex subgroup of general surgical patients are provided.
Abstract: Outcomes in hepatic resectional surgery (HRS) have improved as a result of advances in the understanding of hepatic anatomy, improved surgical techniques, and enhanced peri-operative management. Patients are generally cared for in specialist higher-level ward settings with multidisciplinary input during the initial post-operative period, however, greater acceptance and understanding of HRS has meant that care is transferred, usually after 24-48 h, to a standard ward environment. Surgical trainees will be presented with such patients either electively as part of a hepatobiliary firm or whilst covering the service on-call, and it is therefore important to acknowledge the key points in managing HRS patients. Understanding the applied anatomy of the liver is the key to determining the extent of resection to be undertaken. Increasingly, enhanced patient pathways exist in the post-operative setting requiring focus on the delivery of high quality analgesia, careful fluid balance, nutrition and thromboprophlaxis. Complications can occur including liver, renal and respiratory failure, hemorrhage, and sepsis, all of which require prompt recognition and management. We provide an overview of the relevant terminology applied to hepatic surgery, an approach to the post-operative management, and an aid to developing an awareness of complications so as to facilitate better confidence in this complex subgroup of general surgical patients.
9 citations
TL;DR: The state of the art algorithm in the detection of biliary leakages is presented in order to plan a percutaneous biliary drainage focusing on widely available and safe contrast agent, the Gb-EOB-DPA.
Abstract: Postoperative bile leakage is a common complication of abdominal surgical procedures and a precise localization of is important to choose the best management. Many techniques are available to correctly identify bile leaks, including ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), being the latter the best to clearly depict “active” bile leakages. This paper presents the state of the art algorithm in the detection of biliary leakages in order to plan a percutaneous biliary drainage focusing on widely available and safe contrast agent, the Gb-EOB-DPA. We consider its pharmacokinetic properties and impact in biliary imaging explain current debates to optimize image quality. We report common sites of leakage after surgery with special considerations in cirrhotic liver to show what interventional radiologists should look to easily detect bile leaks.
9 citations
Cites background from "Posthepatectomy bile leakage: how t..."
...The initial diagnosis of a bile leakage in many cases follows the presence of bile in an abdominal drain or the presence of fever with abdominal pain or sepsis with or without an evident peritonitis confirmed by an ERCP or a PTC (6,7)....
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...When a clear site of active bile leakage is not well shown, invasive techniques such as PTC or ERCP are required to show an active CM extravasation from the bile ducts....
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References
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TL;DR: The new complication classification appears reliable and may represent a compelling tool for quality assessment in surgery in all parts of the world.
Abstract: Growing demand for health care, rising costs, constrained resources, and evidence of variations in clinical practice have triggered interest in measuring and improving the quality of health care delivery. For a valuable quality assessment, relevant data on outcome must be obtained in a standardized and reproducible manner to allow comparison among different centers, between different therapies and within a center over time.1–3 Objective and reliable outcome data are increasingly requested by patients and payers (government or private insurance) to assess quality and costs of health care. Moreover, health policy makers point out that the availability of comparative data on individual hospital's and physician's performance represents a powerful market force, which may contribute to limit the costs of health care while improving quality.4
Conclusive assessments of surgical procedures remain limited by the lack of consensus on how to define complications and to stratify them by severity.1,5–8 In 1992, we proposed general principles to classify complications of surgery based on a therapy-oriented, 4-level severity grading.1 Subsequently, the severity grading was refined and applied to compare the results of laparoscopic versus open cholecystectomy9 and liver transplantation.10 This classification has also been used by others11–13 and was recently suggested to serve as the basis to assess the outcome of living related liver transplantation in the United States (J. Trotter, personal communication). However, the classification system has not yet been widely used in the surgical literature.
The strength of the previous classification relied on the principle of grading complications based on the therapy used to treat the complication. This approach allows identification of most complications and prevents down-rating of major negative outcomes. This is particularly important in retrospective analyses. However, we felt that modifications were necessary, particularly in grading life-threatening complications and long-term disability due to a complication. We also felt that the duration of the hospital stay can no longer be used as a criterion to grade complications. Although definitions of negative outcomes rely to a large extend on subjective “value” appraisals, the grading system must be tested in a large cohort of patients. Finally, a classification is useful only if widely accepted and applied throughout different countries and surgical cultures. Such a validation was not done with the previous classification.
Therefore, the aim of the current study was 3-fold: first, to propose an improved classification of surgical complications based on our experience gained with the previous classification1; second, to test this classification in a large cohort of patients who underwent general surgery; and third, to assess the reproducibility and acceptability of the classification through an international survey.
23,435 citations
Heidelberg University1, University of Edinburgh2, Flinders Medical Centre3, University of Hong Kong4, Nagoya University5, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital6, University of Tokyo7, University of Melbourne8, St. Vincent's Health System9, Alfred Hospital10, University of Adelaide11, Royal North Shore Hospital12, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center13, Toronto General Hospital14, University of Girona15, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center16
TL;DR: A uniform definition and severity grading of bile leakage is proposed to enable a standardized comparison of the results of different clinical trials and may facilitate an objective evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in the field of hepatobiliary and pancreatic operative therapy.
1,240 citations
TL;DR: Patients with bile leakage from the hepatic hilum and postoperative uncontrollable ascites tend to have a poor prognosis, especially when a high-risk surgical procedure is performed in patients with liver cirrhosis, and more careful surgical procedures and use of an intraoperative biles leakage test are recommended.
Abstract: Because of recent advances in liver surgery, hepatic resections are being performed with increasing frequency, and the surgical death rate for such resections is decreasing. 1–7 Bile leakage, of course, is the primary complication occurring after liver surgery, and it can not only debase the quality of the postoperative course of patients, but also can lead to hospital death. Despite a significant decrease in the overall surgical complication rate in hepatic resections, the rate of bile leakage has not changed, with an incidence of 4.8% to 7.6% reported in recent large series. 2–8 The presence of bile, blood, and devitalized tissues in the dead space after hepatectomy may provide the ideal environment for bacterial growth and impair the normal host defense mechanisms. 9, 10 The combination of sudden reduction in the liver volume and development of an intraperitoneal septic complication after hepatectomy (IPSCH) frequently results in liver failure, leading to a grave prognosis. 11
The aims of this study were, therefore, to clarify the perioperative risk factors for postoperative bile leakage after hepatic resection, to evaluate the intraoperative bile leakage test as a preventive measure, and to propose a treatment strategy for postoperative bile leakage according to the outcome of these patients.
312 citations
TL;DR: Hematectomies including segment 4, especially if performed for peripheral cholangiocarcinoma, lead to a high risk for postoperative bile leakage, and intraoperative use of fibrin glue may reduce the risk of postoperativebile leakage.
Abstract: Hypothesis The knowledge of risk factors for bile leakage after liver resection could reduce its incidence. Design Retrospective study. Setting Tertiary care referral center. Patients The study included 610 patients who underwent liver resection from January 1, 1989, through January 31, 2003. Interventions Liver resections without biliary anastomoses. Main Outcome Measures Bile leakage incidence and its correlation to preoperative and intraoperative patient characteristics. Results Postoperative bile leakage occurred in 22 (3.6%) of 610 patients. Univariate analysis showed that cirrhosis ( P = .05) or intraoperative use of fibrin glue ( P = .01) was associated with a lower incidence of bile leakage. Moreover, the following factors were significant predictors of bile leakage: peripheral cholangiocarcinoma ( P P = .03), left hepatectomy extended to segment 1 ( P P = .006), and hepatectomy including segment 1 ( P = .001) or segment 4 ( P = .003). At multivariate analysis, use of fibrin glue was an independent protective factor (relative risk = 0.38, P = .046), whereas peripheral cholangiocarcinoma (relative risk = 5.47, P = .02) and resection of segment 4 (relative risk = 3.10, P = .02) were independent risk factors for bile leakage. Conclusions Hepatectomies including segment 4, especially if performed for peripheral cholangiocarcinoma, lead to a high risk for postoperative bile leakage. Intraoperative use of fibrin glue may reduce the risk of postoperative bile leakage.
202 citations
TL;DR: The aim of this study was to identify the perioperative risk factors for postoperative bile leakage after hepatic resection and to propose a treatment strategy for such leakage when it does occur, and to show that patients with involvement of the proximal bile duct were slower to heal than those with no demonstrable biles duct involvement.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to identify the perioperative risk factors for postoperative bile leakage after hepatic resection and to propose a treatment strategy for such leakage when it does occur. Between 1992 and 2000 a total of 313 hepatic resections without choledocojejunal anastomosis were performed at our institute. Risk factors related to bile leakage were identified with univariate analysis, and strategies were evaluated in relation to the findings of postoperative fistulography. Postoperative bile leakage developed in 17 patients (5.4%). Univariate analysis identified high risk factors as advanced age, a wide surface area of the incision (bile leakage group versus no bile leakage group: 102.1 vs. 66.4 cm2, p < 0.05), and exposure of Glisson’s sheath at the cut surface (e.g., central bisegmentectomy, S4, S8 subsegmentectomy). Groupings of patients by their postoperative fistulography results showed that patients with involvement of the proximal bile duct were slower to heal than those with no demonstrable bile duct involvement. The one patient whose fistulogram demonstrated peripheral bile duct involvement had uncontrollable leakage and required reoperation. Hepatectomies with a wide surface area and those that expose the major Glisson’s sheath present serious risk factors for bile leakage. When the fistulogram shows proximal bile duct involvement, endoscopic nasobiliary tube drainage is necessary; when the fistulogram shows peripheral bile duct involvement, reoperation is needed.
168 citations