Long-Term (>5 Years) Clinical and Histological Follow-up of Pediatric Liver Transplant Recipients After Successful Radiological Percutaneous Treatment of Biliary Strictures

Excerpt

Over the last decade, percutaneous treatment of biliary strictures (bilioplasty, PTB) in liver transplant recipients has gradually replaced surgery as the treatment of choice in many liver transplant centers. No evidence-based guidelines or consensus statements have been published in the literature. However, bilioplasty is less invasive and has a reported technical success ranging from 34 to 75 %, which is similar to that seen in surgical revision [1‐7]. The major downfall of PTB is the potential necessity for long-term external biliary drainage and repeat procedures, with potential psychological and socioeconomic repercussions. PTB in pediatric liver transplant recipients can be highly challenging and technically demanding even for experienced interventional radiologists, and might require long fluoroscopy time and high radiation exposure to patients and operators alike [8]. …