The clinical significance of bile duct sludge: is it different from bile duct stones?

Abstract

The findings indicate that the clinical significance of symptomatic BDS is similar to that of CBD stones. Bile duct sludge seems to be an early stage of choledocholithiasis.

Tissue harmonic sonography in the diagnosis of common bile duct stones: A comparison with endoscopic retrograde cholangiography

“…Sludge and stones in the bile ducts of symptomatic patients have similar clinical significance, therefore requiring endoscopic clearance. 27 Accuracy of sphincterotomy is superior to cholangiographic image by ERCP for choledocholithiasis. To our knowledge, all series of MRCP reported have compared the MRCP results with cholangiographic results as the gold standard.…”

Role of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and other non‐invasive imaging modalities in assessing bile duct stones

“…Finally, MRCP and other non‐invasive biliary imaging modalities often miss biliary sludge. This may cause symptoms and often is only visible after either sphincterotomy or surgery 22 . The data from the present series, however, indicates that there is a group of patients presenting with biliary disease who have spontaneously passed a bile duct calculus as demonstrated on clinical, biochemical, and radiological (US and MRCP) grounds.…”

Comparison of the clinical characteristics and imaging findings of acute cholangitis with and without biliary dilatation

“…In addition, one study demonstrated that small stones ,8 mm in size can pass through the duodenal papilla [14]; this may also contribute to non-dilated bile ducts. In a study of the clinical significance of bile duct sludge, Keizman et al [15] reported that bile duct sludge is regarded as an early state of choledocholithiasis because 16% of patients with CBD sludge developed symptomatic CBD stones. In addition, CBD dilatation was less commonly observed in the patients with sludge in their study.…”