Published online Apr 30, 2019. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v7.i4.162
Peer-review started: March 13, 2019
First decision: March 27, 2019
Revised: April 3, 2019
Accepted: April 18, 2019
Article in press: April 18, 2019
Published online: April 30, 2019
Processing time: 49 Days and 19 Hours
Core tip: Endoscopic treatment for common bile duct (CBD) stones has been widely accepted. However, for specific patients, such as those with gastrointestinal anatomical changes, duodenal diverticulum, esophageal varices, or other conditions, endoscopic treatment is unsuitable and difficult to perform. Under these circumstances, it has been shown that percutaneous transhepatic balloon dilation (PTBD) can remove CBD stones via a percutaneous transhepatic route after papilla dilation. However, no review on this technique has been published. Therefore, we performed a systematic review to confirm the safety and efficacy of PTBD in removing CBD stones in terms of the key outcomes, success rate, reasons for failure, and procedure-related complications.