Safety and efficacy of one-stage total laparoscopic treatment of common bile duct stones in children

Laparoscope combined with ureteroscope in the treatment of bile duct stones and cholecystolithiasis in a child: a case report and literature review

Cholecystolithiasis combined with bile duct stones is more and more common in children, but the surgical treatment is still controversial. We report on a 3-year-old boy, who underwent laparoscope combined with ureteroscope for choledocholithiasis with cholecystolithiasis. This combination therapy offers the possibility to treat pediatric patients with cholecystolithiasis and bile duct stones in low-resource settings where ERCP experience and child-specific surgical instruments are not available. Additionally, a comprehensive review of previous studies was conducted to summarize the surgical treatments. The surgical treatment of children should be made according to the specific situation to maximize the success of the operation and reduce the risk.

Tips and Tricks—3 Use Cases of Interdisciplinary Knowledge Transfer in Minimally Invasive Pediatric Surgery

In the pediatric surgical environment, we can enrich our knowledge and improve our skills through interdisciplinary knowledge transfer in exchange with other surgical or even non-surgical disciplines. To demonstrate this, we present in this article three patient cases of method transfer enabling new techniques in minimally invasive pediatric surgery. 1. The somewhat modified application of the AeroStat rigid tip laparoscopic cholangiography catheter during the single-step laparoscopic cholecystectomy facilitates the safe intraoperative cholangiography with common bile duct flushing. 2. A magnetic rod is used during laparoscopic enterotomy to locate and retrieve ingested magnets. 3. Using a patient-specific MRI 3D model representing a syndromic high anorectal malformation improves surgical planning and parental education.

Percutaneous Management of Biliary Stones

Bile duct stone disease is the most common causes of nonmalignant bile duct obstructions. The range of common bile duct stone formation in patients with cholecystectomy is 3 to 14.7%. Hepatolithiasis, although endemic in some parts of the world, is a rare disease that is difficult to manage. Endoscopic intervention is accepted as the first-line management of common bile duct stones. However, when the bile duct cannot be cannulated for various reasons, the endoscopic procedure fails. In this circumstance, percutaneous approach is an alternative technique for the nonsurgical treatment of bile duct stones. This article reviews the indications, technique, outcomes, and complications of the percutaneous treatment of bile duct stone disease.

Complications in pediatric laparoscopic cholecystectomy: systematic review

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the gold standard for surgical management in symptomatic children, but it is not without complications, bile duct injury being among the most feared. This study reviewed the complications of LC in children. MEDLINE/PubMed, CENTRAL and Lilacs were reviewed for LC. Studies in patients ≤ 18 years of age published in English, Portuguese or Spanish were selected by two independent reviewers. Data were collected for patients' characteristics, surgical information, complications, mortality and follow-up. Twenty-four papers were identified and offered 2783 patients. Mean age was 11 years (3 months-18 years). In the 93/2783 (3.3%) complications, single-port procedures were associated with seven (7.5%), 3/4-port with 81 (87.1%) and the number of ports were not specified in five. Routine cholangiography was not part of the protocol in any of the reports. Complications included wound issues (n = 24), perforation (n = 14), bleeds (n = 13), biliary tree complications (n = 9), sickle cell crisis (n = 8), fever (n = 6), leaks (n = 4), pain (n = 3), nausea/emesis (n = 3) and others (n = 9). Two of these patients had a history of obesity and cholecystitis and only two biliary tree lesions were diagnosed intra-operatively. Seventeen cases (18.3%) required re-intervention: 15 surgical and two endoscopic. Issues related to biliary tree included: common bile duct lesion (n = 6), biliary fistula (n = 3), clip dislocation from cystic duct (n = 1), cholangitis (n = 1) and calculus (n = 1). There was no mortality, and the mean follow-up period was 10.3 months (1 month-5 years). LC is safe in children and, although most complications are minor, almost 1/5 complications require interventions, mostly due to bleeding and biliary tree complications. Mortality has not been reported in pediatric LC.

Percutaneous management of bile duct stones in children: results of 12 cases

PURPOSE

We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of percutaneous transhepatic removal of bile duct stones in children.

METHODS

The study included 12 pediatric patients (4 males, 8 females; age range, 1-16 years; mean age, 6.6 years) who underwent percutaneous transhepatic removal of bile duct stones between September 2007 and December 2015. Demographic data, patient symptoms, indications for interventions, technical and clinical outcomes of the procedure, and complications were retrospectively evaluated.

RESULTS

Of 12 children, five children with cholelithiasis underwent cholecystectomy subsequently. The overall technical and clinical success rate was 100%. One patient had cholangitis as a complication during the follow-up and was treated medically.

CONCLUSION

Percutaneous transhepatic removal of bile duct stones is a safe and effective method for the treatment of children with biliary stone disease. It is a feasible alternative when the endoscopic procedure is unavailable or fails.