Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to T J Ball.
A patient with multicentric biliary papillomatosis associated with invasive adenocarcinoma of the bile duct is reported. This case documents the progression to malignancy of a lesion generally thought to be benign. It serves to alert clinicians to a rare but important cause of recurrent biliary obstruction. The literature on this entity is reviewed.
A patient underwent a routine percutaneous liver biopsy and subsequently developed gastrointestinal hemorrhage, biliary colic, and bilirubinuria suggesting the presence of hemobilia. After a negative arteriogram endoscopic cholangiography was used to confirm the diagnosis.
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Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) and jejunostomy (PEJ) have supplanted their surgical counterparts in many institutions. Previous reports have claimed advantages in placing PEJ tubes because of reduced gastroesophageal reflux, prevention of aspiration, and improved tube anchoring distally. We reviewed the records of 191 patients who underwent placement of PEG/J tubes. Data collected included incidence of tube dysfunction, need for tube replacement or removal, and aspiration after PEG or PEJ tube placement. Tube dysfunction, defined as peritube leakage, plugging, fracture, or migration, occurred in 36% of patients over a mean follow-up period of 275 days and was significantly more common and likely to necessitate tube replacement in PEJ patients. Tube trade-out or removal and aspiration within a 30-day period after tube placement occurred in 28% and 10% of patients, respectively. These complications were significantly more common in PEJ patients than in PEG patients. Because of the increased incidence of tube dysfunction and the failure to prevent aspiration in predisposed patients, PEJ tube placement is not routinely indicated in patients requiring tube feedings.
Ten patients with a variety of upper gastrointestinal tract stenoses precluding conventional prostheses or associated with recurrent occlusions of these prostheses, had an expandable metal Z stent placed. All patients had successful insertion (esophagus, five; biliary, three; afferent loop, one; efferent loop, one), although there was a tendency for the prostheses to delivery distally (gut) or proximally (biliary tree). Despite patency rates for up to 6 months in the esophagus and 1 year in the biliary tree, additional data and design modifications are required before widespread utilization.
Procedural (room fee) reimbursement from insurance payers is usually fixed for individual endoscopic procedures and may not include the costs of disposable equipment. This study estimated costs of disposable items used in ERCP procedures and calculated the percentage of total reimbursement spent on such equipment. A total of 248 ERCPs were performed in a 5-month study period, 192 (77%) of which were therapeutic. Total reimbursement was estimated to be $112,262 ($452 per procedure) and total disposable equipment costs were $47,195 ($190 per procedure), or 42% of total reimbursement. Disposable instrument costs in diagnostic ERCP approximated 13% of those associated with therapeutic ERCP, and the latter costs in turn utilized more than 60% of Medicare/Medicaid room fee reimbursement. This reimbursement may be inadequate to cover both disposable instrument costs and other procedural expenses, such as admit-recovery costs, nursing assistance, expenses related to endoscope purchase and capitalization, and equipment cleaning or sterilization. Our data suggest the need for either re-usable endoscopic accessories or adequate compensation to cover disposable instrument costs.
During a 2-year period in which the application of laparoscopic cholecystectomy became widespread in the Pacific Northwest, 33 patients with surgically related bile duct injury were seen by the gastroenterology section of a large multi-specialty clinic. Twenty-nine of these patients had anatomy amenable to endoscopic approach, and 25 of the 29 are symptom-free, with normal ultrasonography and serum liver function tests, at a minimum of 1 year of follow-up after undergoing a variety of endotherapeutic procedures. The authors conclude that endoscopic therapy, in conjunction with percutaneous drainage of large bilomas, is effective treatment for cystic duct leak and minor damage to the common bile duct. Further data and prolonged follow-up are required in patients with more significant biliary injury who undergo endoscopic endoprosthesis and/or dilation therapy.
Seventy-three highly selected patients (35 type II, 38 type III) with intractable biliary-type pain were studied with biliary manometry after a baseline endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography was normal or showed only duct dilatation. No differences between the two groups were noted in regard to baseline sphincter hypertension (60% versus 55%), improvement after endoscopic sphincterotomy at mean follow-up of 3 years, or post-procedure pancreatitis rates (15% versus 16%). Although not statistically significant, a tendency for patients with bile ducts > or = 12 mm to have sustained clinical improvement after sphincterotomy was noted in comparison with patients having ducts < 12 mm; an inverse correlation between improvement in symptoms and presence of an intact gallbladder at baseline was also seen. The authors suggest that the current classification, which divides patients with recurrent right upper quadrant pain into types I, II, and III, is inadequate to define either incidence of sphincter of Oddi dysfunction or subsequent response to endoscopic sphincterotomy.
Fifty-six patients, 54 of whom had chronic pancreatitis, underwent endoscopic pancreatic duct sphincterotomy during a 4-year period from 1988 to 1992. Acute complications noted in 10% of patients included exacerbation of pancreatitis (4) and cholangitis (2). Chronic complications included induction of asymptomatic ductal changes in 16%, thought to be related to endoprosthesis placement, and stenosis of the sphincterotomy site in 14%, requiring repeated endoscopic or surgical sphincter section. When combined with a number of ancillary procedures, including removal of obstructing ductal calculi and stent placement for ductal disruption or stenosis, pancreatic duct sphincterotomy was associated with amelioration of chronic pain or decreased number of clinical attacks of pancreatitis in a subset of patients. The authors conclude that endoscopic pancreatic duct sphincterotomy enlarges our endotherapeutic armamentarium and deserves additional evaluation.
Because transpapillary stents have been successfully placed to treat the ductal disruptions associated with pseudocysts, pancreatic ascites and pleural effusions, and pancreaticoenteric fistulas, we reviewed our experience with endoscopically placed prostheses in patients who had persistent pancreaticocutaneous fistulas but an otherwise intact duct. Nine patients who underwent endoscopic transpapillary stent placement for ongoing pancreaticocutaneous fistulas at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Fistulas were present for a mean (+/-SEM) of 35 +/- 11 days and averaged 225 +/- 55 ml of output daily. Etiology of the fistulas included percutaneous pseudocyst drainage in four patients, pancreatic necrosis in two, complications of pancreatic surgery in two, and perforation of the duct of Santorini at the time of minor sphincterotomy in one. All patients had an otherwise intact duct at the time of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Six patients had transpapillary stents placed that did not bridge the area of leakage and three had prostheses placed across the ductal disruption. Eight of nine fistulas were successfully closed by means of this technique including five within 48 hours. There was one instance of stent migration and one patient developed prosthesis occlusion and an infected pseudocyst, which was treated with stent exchange. Stents were retrieved 10 to 14 days after fistula closure and no patient has had a recurrence at a median follow-up of 3 years. Transpapillary stents appear to effect closure of pancreaticocutaneous fistulas that fail to respond to conventional therapy.