Choledochoscopy Reduces Unnecessary Papillary Surgery

We present 200 patients, from the period January 1988 to July 1990, who received surgery for biliary lithiasis and required opening of the common bile duct. The patients were divided into two groups according to the methods used for bile duct exploration. In one group, the duct was explored using conventional methods (n = 100), and in the other group (n = 100) the same exploratory techniques were used, but with the subsequent addition of rigid choledochoscopy. The use of the choledochoscope led to a statistically significant decrease in the number of papillotomies (p < 0.01) (8% in the group with choledochoscopy and 21 % in the group without choledochoscopy) and a decrease, but not statistically significant, in the percentage of residual stones (1.6 % in the group with and 6.9 % in the group without choledochoscopy).