Liver Transplantation in the Management of Iatrogenic Biliary Tract Injury

Excerpt

We read with great interest the article by Thomson et al. on the role of resection and transplantation in the management of iatrogenic biliary tract injury [1]. In the discussion part, the authors stated that “The English literature reports ten patients requiring hepatic transplantation in the management of biliary injury after cholecystectomy... Of these ten patients, four have died while awaiting a transplant... and the other from Kaposi’s sarcoma posttransplantation.” For the sake of completeness and adequate emphasis on this serious health problem, we wish to draw your attention to the other reported 14 patients who were treated by liver transplantation after iatrogenic injury during cholecystectomy (mostly biliary injury, sometimes associated with vascular injury) [2‐6]. Although a combined surgical and radiologic approach achieves high success rates in biliary repair, progression to biliary cirrhosis cannot be always prevented [1]. It is likely that liver transplantation will continue to be a life-saving option in a selected group of patients with iatrogenic injury during cholecystectomy. …