Is choledocholithiasis a late complication of nonresectional therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma?

We present 3 patients who developed choledocholithiasis 10, 13, and 12 months after percutaneous ethanol injection and/or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma. Since none of these patients had stones in the gallbladder or in the bile ducts before treatment, bile duct stones might have resulted from local injury in the bile ducts by percutaneous ethanol injection and/or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization. Choledocholithiasis may be a late complication of nonresectional and local therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma tumors.