Percutaneous treatment and quality of life in patients with metastatic cmpression and stenosis of the bile duct

The treatment of patients with metastasis from gastroinestinal tumars stenosing the bile ducts and causing jaundice is freqently difficult, due to general and local conditions of the patients. A series of 20 patients treated with percutaneous treatment for metastasis compression is reported. In 18 cases a percutaneous transhepatic drainage or an endoprothesis was positioned. All patients were foolowed-up for survival and quality of life. The average survival rate in patients treated with pre-stenotic PTBD was 89 days, 23 days in the trans-stenotic group and 154 days in the prosthesis group. In 9 cases self-sufficiency at dismission from the hospital was > 50%, whereas 4 of these patients had a self-sufficiency < 50% at the entrance. On the basis of these data the Authors propose the criteria of choice for the selection of patients to treat.