Endoscopic papillotomy in the geriatric patient with complicated biliary-tract disease.

Biliary-tract disease is not only more common in the geriatric population but carries an increased surgical risk. Described is a series of 10 middle-aged and elderly patients who had stones in the common bile duct associated with significant underlying medical illness or peri-ampullary pathologic changes. They were successfully treated by endoscopic papillotomy. The 80 percent success rate in such critically ill patients suggests that endoscopic papillotomy might be used as the initial treatment modality in aging patients with amenable biliary-tract disease.