Acute suppurative obstructive cholangitis due to stones: treatment by urgent endoscopic sphincterotomy.

Endoscopic sphincterotomy is an accepted treatment for retained common bile duct stones, but there is little specific information available regarding its application in acute suppurative obstructive cholangitis with sepsis due to choledocholithiasis. Thirteen patients with this condition were referred to the authors for consideration of urgent endoscopic common bile duct decompression. All had been judged to be poor surgical candidates. Pus was released from the common bile duct by sphincterotomy within 24 hours of admission in all 13. Stones were removed endoscopically in 10 patients (77%) without complications. After endoscopic stone removal, symptoms, signs, and abnormal laboratory values returned to normal rapidly; follow-up endoscopic retrograde cholangiography did not show retained stones. Three patients whose large stones precluded endoscopic removal underwent operative choledocholithotomy. Urgent endoscopic sphincterotomy offers an important alternative in the treatment of acute suppurative obstructive cholangitis secondary to choledocholithiasis.