The postoperative choledochoscopy in the management of the residual hepatolithiasis involving the caudate lobe: A retrospective study

To reveal the role of the postoperative choledochoscopy in treating the residual calculi in the caudate lobe (CL) of the liver. We recruited 66 patients with T-tube/percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy tract who still had residual gallstones in the CL at least 6 weeks after the operation. Imaging examinations determined the gallstones’ locations in the patients, and all of them underwent the postoperative choledochoscopic examination through the T-tube/percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy tract for therapeutic intervention. Among the 66 patients, the residual gallstones were mostly located in the Spiegel lobe (48/66, 72.7%), and the residual gallstones that located in the origin of the CL bile branches were successfully determined in the 57 patients (57/66, 86.4%), the remaining 9 patients were unclear because the proximal ducts were severely narrow or even atresia. The mean frequency of the postoperative choledochoscopy was 3.6 (range, 1–10) times. There were 9 patients with complications, and no mortality occurred. In the origin-proved 57 patients, 6 patients failed to remove the gallstones altogether, and the final residual gallstone clearance rate was 77.3% (51/66). There was no significant difference between the Spiegel lobe and the other parts of the CL in determining the bile duct's origins, gallstone clearance rate, and complications. However, the frequency of choledochoscopy in the other parts of the CL was more than in the Spiegel lobe. The postoperative choledochoscopy, an essential method for treating the residual gallstones in the CL, commands high efficiency for calculi extraction and fewer complications. The main reasons for failing to remove the residual gallstones are that the bile duct's origins could not be determined, and the distal bile ducts are atretic in the CL.