Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiogram and/or Biliary Drainage

Your physician has referred you to the Diagnostic Services Department at United Hospital Center for a Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiogram and/or Biliary Drainage. These are two different tests sometimes performed together, sometimes separately. The decision upon which test or tests will benefit you most will be made by your physician and the radiologist.

The purpose of a Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiogram and/or Biliary Drainage is to study the ducts or passage ways of your liver.

If you are currently not a patient in the hospital, you will be asked to report to the hospital registration department two (2) hours prior to your scheduled exam. After registration, you will be escorted to a hospital room where you will be prepared for the exam. An intravenous (IV) line may be inserted into a vein in your arm.

After arriving in the Diagnostic Services Department, you will be asked to sign a consent form. You will then be placed on a radiographic table on your back. The radiologist will begin this procedure by numbing your skin and then inserting a needle into your liver. Once the needle is in place in the liver, contrast medium (x-ray dye) is injected through the needle into the liver ducts. After the liver ducts are filled with contrast medium, the study is recorded on x-ray film.

If necessary, a plastic catheter will be inserted through the skin and into the liver. This will result in a tube or plastic catheter outside of the body attached to a bag.

Sometimes this procedure is uncomfortable, so anesthesia is administered to relieve any pain you might experience. When the test is over, you will either go back to your room or to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). After the procedure, care must be taken not to pull on the catheter.

Risks involved with this examination include: infection, bleeding, collapsed lung, punctured bowel, leakage of bile from the liver, reaction to contrast medium, reaction to the anesthesia, and/or loss of life.

Your physician feels the benefits of this procedure outweigh the risks and would aid in the diagnosis of your medical condition.

Please DO NOT drink or eat anything after midnight the night before your scheduled exam. However, you may take your medications with small sips of water, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.

LENGTH: Procedure time approximately 2 1/2 hours (total hospital time 4-6 hours)

If you are pregnant, or think you might be, tell your doctor and the technologist BEFORE your exam.