Doctors use digital cholangioscopy to treat complex bile duct strictures

Doctors at a Turkish tertiary referral center used a digital single-operator cholangioscope to navigate guidewires through difficult bile duct strictures.

The medical team applied this technique for patients whose standard endoscopic procedures had already failed to pass a wire across the blockage. By using the scope to see the biliary tree directly, the doctors could steer the wire under visual control instead of relying on guesswork. The study followed 25 patients with benign strictures between 2023 and 2025.

The researchers found that this method worked for 22 of those patients, achieving an 88 percent technical success rate. In 20 of the 25 patients, the procedure led to early clinical success, which the team defined as biochemical and symptomatic improvement without needing another intervention within one month. The technique showed high success rates for specific groups, including patients with biliary injuries and those who received living-donor liver transplants.

While four patients experienced complications like cholangitis or bleeding, the authors noted that the study was retrospective and used a small sample. They stated that more comparative studies are necessary to determine if this method reduces the need for surgery or percutaneous drainage.