The use of a vascularized jejunal patch for the reconstruction of bile duct injuries is presented. The method has been used in 1 patient with a common bile duct stricture and in 1 patient with a noncircumferential bile duct defect. The procedure has the advantages of technical simplicity, primary mucosal coverage, lasting elasticity, and minimal risk for stricture formation.

Forty-nine patients with clinical signs of acute cholecystitis underwent conventional and computed tomographic cholangiography. Among 39 patients with signs of contrast medium in the biliary system at both examinations there was a diagnostic discrepancy in only one patient. Conventional radiography demonstrated cholecystopathy in this patient while contrast medium in the gallbladder and an acute pancreatitis were found at computed tomography. Ten patients with an indeterminate conventional cholangiography had a conclusive computed tomographic examination. Twenty of 30 patients with an abnormal computed tomographic cholangiography underwent cholecystectomy and all had diseased gallbladders. All 17 patients with histopathologically confirmed acute cholecystitis had signs of subserosal edema and/or changes in the omental fatty tissue adjacent to the gallbladder at computed tomography. A layer of tissue of water-density adjacent to the gallbladder and/or changes in omental fatty tissue were also seen in one patient with congestive heart failure and in one with a penetrating duodenal ulcer. None of the 19 patients with a normal computed tomographic cholangiography had a proven acute cholecystitis.

Cholangiograms were reviewed of 190 patients with gall-bladder disease, who were consecutively operated upon with common bile-duct exploration during a 2.5-year period. Nine patients were excluded for various reasons. In 86 patients endoscopy of the duodenum was also performed after surgery. In 181 patients post-operative cholangiography revealed the following lesions, not found at the pre-explorative examinations: Fistula to the duodenum in 27, ulcers or sinus tracts in 11, ectasia and/or irregularities in another 11. In 17 patients retained calculi were found. The clinical significance of the iatrogenic lesions is probably low, but they must be recognized as such in order not to be radiologically misinterpreted.