Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage with anterior approach to the left bile ducts

In 28 selected cases (right hepatic lobe lobectomy or atrophy; prevalent dilatation of the left bile ducts; necessary double drainage in the obstruction of the right and left hepatic ducts confluence; etc.) the percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography and the biliary drainage were performed by a left-lobe subxiphoid approach, rather than the currently popular right-lobe approach. By means of this technique some treatments (biliary endoprosthesis insertion, gallstones removal or dissolution, bilioplasty) were executed; these treatments were impossible or very hard to realize by the right-lobe approach. No failures or complications occurred