V. Vougas et al., A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF BILE-DUCT RECONSTRUCTION AT LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION - T-TUBE OR NO T-TUBE, Transplant international, 9(4), 1996, pp. 392-395
A prospective randomised study of end-to-end bile duct reconstruction
with or without T-tube drainage during orthotopic liver transplantatio
n (OLT) was undertaken in 60 patients well matched for age, sex, aetio
logy of liver disease, operative blood loss, cold ischaemic time, preo
perative serum bilirubin level and Child-Pugh score. Significant bilia
ry complications in the T tube group occurred in five patients and inc
luded bile duct stricture (n = 2), bile leak/peritonitis (n = 1) and c
holangitis (n = 2). Bile duct strictures occurred in six patients in t
he no T tube group (P > 0.05, NS). Hepatic artery stenosis was identif
ied in one patient from each group in association with a biliary stric
ture. Biliary complications in both groups were associated with a prol
onged graft cold ischaemic time (P < 0.01), As no significant differen
ce was noted in the number of early and late biliary complications bet
ween the two groups, the routine use of a T tube has been discontinued
.