Stepwise approach to curative surgery using percutaneous transhepatic cholangiodrainage and portal vein embolization for severe bile duct injury during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a case report

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has been recently adapted to acute cholecystitis. Major bile duct injury during LC, especially Strasberg-Bismuth classification type E, can be a critical problem sometimes requiring hepatectomy. Safety and definitive treatment without further morbidities, such as posthepatectomy liver failure, is required. Here, we report a case of severe bile duct injury treated with a stepwise approach using (99m)Tc-galactosyl human serum albumin ((99m)Tc-GSA) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/CT fusion imaging to accurately estimate liver function. A 52-year-old woman diagnosed with acute cholecystitis underwent LC at another hospital and was transferred to our university hospital for persistent bile leakage on postoperative day 20. She had no jaundice or infection, although an intraperitoneal drainage tube discharged approximately 500 ml of bile per day. Recorded operation procedure showed removal of the gallbladder with a part of the common bile duct due to its misidentification, and each of the hepatic ducts and right hepatic artery was injured. Abdominal enhanced CT revealed obstructive jaundice of the left liver and arterial shunt through the hilar plate to the right liver. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography revealed type E4 or more advanced bile duct injury according to the Bismuth-Strasberg classification. We planned a stepwise approach using percutaneous transhepatic cholangiodrainage (PTCD) and portal vein embolization (PVE) for secure right hemihepatectomy and biliary-jejunum reconstruction and employed (99m)Tc-GSA SPECT/CT fusion imaging to estimate future remnant liver function. The left liver function rate had changed from 26.2 % on admission to 26.3 % after PTCD and 54.5 % after PVE, while the left liver volume rate was 33.8, 33.3, and 49.6 %, respectively. The increase of liver function was higher than that of volume (28.3 vs. 15.8 %). On postoperative day 63, the curative operation, right hemihepatectomy and biliary-jejunum reconstruction, was performed, and posthepatectomy liver failure could be avoided. Careful consideration of treatment strategy for each case is necessary for severe bile duct injury with arterial injury requiring hepatectomy. The stepwise approach using PTCD and PVE could enable hemihepatectomy, and (99m)Tc-GSA SPECT/CT fusion imaging was useful to estimate heterogeneous liver function.