What do you know about cholangiocarcinoma of the hilar region?

  Recently, laparoscopic radical surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma was successfully performed in F5C ward of General Surgery Department of our hospital. The operation was checked by the Ministry of Education’s science and technology investigation workstation and was the first laparoscopic radical surgery of hepatoportal bile duct cancer in Shandong Province.  The patient, male, was admitted to the hospital with yellow urine for more than 20 days and yellow sclera for 7 days. On examination: yellow scleral staining of skin, flat abdomen, no varices, no gastrointestinal pattern and peristaltic waves, soft abdomen, no pressure pain and rebound pain, liver and spleen not palpable under the ribs, negative Morphy’s sign, no percussion pain in the liver and kidney area, negative mobile turbid sounds, and acceptable bowel sounds. Combining history, signs, ultrasound, CT and CA-199, the preoperative diagnosis was considered obstructive jaundice and bile duct cancer in the porta hepatis, and the patient had significantly elevated bilirubin. After discussion and active preoperative preparation in the F5C ward of general surgery, this patient decided to perform laparoscopic radical surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma, which was performed by Prof. Sanyuan Hu, Associate Prof. Bin Jin, Attending Physician Gang Du and Dr. Jia Li. The tumor was located in the common bile duct, about 1*1cm, hard, and the hepatoduodenal ligament was edematous, with multiple enlarged lymph nodes, about 1.2*1cm in size. The common bile duct was dissected at the superior edge of the duodenum, the hepatoduodenal ligament was cleared “skeletally”, then the gallbladder was freed, the tumor and gallbladder were removed together, the jejunum was dissected about 20 cm from the flexural ligament, and the end-lateral anastomosis between the common bile duct and the distal jejunum was performed. (The patient was discharged from the hospital after removal of the drainage tube and removal of the stitches from the incision.  Even difficult surgery can be minimally invasive – laparoscopic radical surgery of hilar bile duct cancer was successfully performed in general surgery Radical surgery of hilar bile duct cancer is a major surgery in hepatobiliary surgery, while laparoscopic radical surgery of hilar bile duct cancer is a more difficult surgery, which requires “skeletonization” under laparoscopy It requires “skeletonizing” the hepatoduodenal ligament and completing biliary-intestinal anastomosis and intestinal-intestinal anastomosis, which not only requires the surgeon to be proficient in the technique of open surgery, but also requires the surgeon to have excellent laparoscopic skills. Our general surgery department has rich experience in hepatobiliary surgery and rich reserve of laparoscopic technology, and successfully performed the first laparoscopic radical surgery of hepatoportal bile duct cancer in Shandong Province, which has gained valuable experience for the further development of laparoscopic biliary surgery in our hospital. At the same time, laparoscopic surgery is less traumatic, with faster recovery, less pain, fewer complications and shorter hospital stay, which is more easily accepted by patients.