Hepaticoenterostomy after excision of choledochal cyst in children: A 30-year experience with 180 cases

In the long-term follow-up of patients with choledochal cyst, postoperative ascending cholangitis and/or stone formation in the intrahepatic bile ducts (IHBD) owing to anastomotic stricture present serious problems. To prevent the formation of anastomotic strictures, some surgeons recently have performed hepaticoenterostomy at the hepatic hilum, with a wide stoma, in ail patients with choledochal cyst. The authors of the present study review the surgical procedures performed on a total of 180 children with choledochal cyst and discuss the treatment of choice, with special reference to the types of hepaticoenterostomy. The medical records and radiographs of all patients treated for choledochal cyst between January 1964 and December 1993 at the authors' institutions were reviewed. A total of 180 patients (mean age at time of surgery, 4.3 years) had follow-up for a mean of 11.1 years; 174 of them had cyst excision and hepaticoenterostomy, and six had cystoenterostomy. Of the 174 patients who underwent cyst excision, 171 had a conventional hepaticoenterostomy; two had an intrahepatic cystoenterostomy, and one had a hepaticoenterostomy at the hepatic hilum. IHBD stones with or without cholangitis developed postoperatively in four (2.3%) of the 171 patients who had conventional hepaticoenterostomy. The age at time hepaticoenterostomy of these four patients was 12, 7, 16, and 6 years. Postoperative IHBD stone formation and cholangitis were not found in 121 patients under 5 years of age. The authors recommend conventional hepaticoenterostomy as the treatment of choice for children with choledochal cyst. Hepatico-enterostomy at the hepatic hilum is indicated in only selected cases. Copyright (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company