What is the best procedure to remove stones from the bile duct?

Question

I am pretty sure I have stones left in my bile duct. I had my gallbladder taken out 3 years ago, and have never felt like it was out. I still hurt just like I did when I had my gallbladder. I do have a test schedule, a MRCP to determine if I still have stones in the bile duct. If I do how do they remove them? The girl in x-ray told me I would have to be put to sleep in OR and then they would remove them? Also if I do have them, and they are removed, how long will I be out of work? Thanks.

Answer 1

The procedure is called ERCP:

Wikipedia (not written in the most patient-friendly way): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoscopic_...

Patient Information (published by NIH, trustworthy): http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases...

MRCP uses MRI to see the bile ducts from the outside, so cannot actually do anything to the bile ducts.

ERCP, on the other hand, physically gets into your gut (through your mouth) with an endoscope (a long flexible tube with a tiny camera mounted at the tip).  When the tip reaches the 2nd part of the duodenum (where the bile duct drains into the small gut), the doctor doing the ERCP can then use several tools to fix the problem physically:

- he/she can inject a x-ray dye into the bile duct to see if indeed you have stones left in the bile duct, and if so, where they are and how big they are

- he/she can cut the opening slightly to make it bigger (so stones will pass naturally into the small gut and be poo'd out)

- he/she can send a basket-like tool into the opening to actually grab the stones and pull them out

ERCP is usually done under conscious sedation, meaning that they will knock you out with medications, but still allow your body to control breathing on its own (in most surgeries, they put you "deeper" in anesthesia that you don't breath on your own any more, and as a result, you need to go on a ventilator during surgery).

The ERCP procedure only takes half-an-hour to 2 hours to do.  You'll then go to a recovery area to allow the medications to wear off.  Sometimes they keep you overnight.

You should be able to go back to work the next day (or the day after, if you are still very groggy the next day).

Hope this helps.