Iatrocenic Injury of the Extrahepatic Bile Ducts. Surgical Reconstruction

The majority of biliary tract injuries are iatrogenic. They are usually associated with operations in the upper abdomen. More than 80% occur during cholecystectomy, one of the most common intra-abdominal operations. Langenbuch performed the first successful cholecystectomy in 1882, and since then the number of cholecystectomies has increased rapidly, inevitably increasing the number of complications. Iatrogenic bile duct injuries are unfortunately not rare and may have disastrous consequences and very significant long-term morbidity and mortality [1], [2]. With adherence to well-established technical principles for open cholecystectomy, the incidence of bile duct injuries remained at less than 0.5% in most of the published retrospective series [3], [4]