Operations for extrahepatic bile duct cancers: Are the results really improving?

Objective: To find out if our results for the treatment of extrahepatic bil e duct cancer have improved we reviewed our latest patients as a comparison to a previously reported series from this department. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Tertiary referral centre, Sweden. Subjects: 102 patients who presented with extrahepatic bile duct cancer 197 9-1995. Main outcome measures: Morbidy, mortality, and short and long term survival . Results: 16 patients had various types of resection, which were radical in 14 according to the surgeon and in 10 according to the pathologist. One pat ient (6%) died in hospital, and 11 (44%) developed complications. 13 patien ts had other operations that did not involve resection, 23 had laparotomy a lone, 61 had biliary drainage either by percutaneous transhepatic cholangio graphy (PTC) or endoscopy, and 10 had no active treatment. One patient of t he 16 (6%) who had resections has survived for more than five years and ano ther one is still alive after 40 months. Conclusion: Long term survival has not improved for patients with extrahepa tic bile duct cancer in our hospital during the last decades.