Use of the rendezvous technique in the treatment of biliary anastomotic disruption in a liver transplant recipient

Abstract

In liver transplant recipients, the treatment of a biliary leak resulting from anastomotic disruption usually requires surgical intervention. However, reoperation results in significant morbidity in such patients, whose clinical status may preclude a second surgery. Restoring the integrity of a disrupted biliary anastomosis can be difficult, and in some patients with that complication, neither the percutaneous technique nor the endoscopic approach effectively stents the biliary anastomosis. In those individuals, bile drainage can be achieved by means of a combined percutaneous transhepatic and endoscopic transpapillary approach (the rendezvous technique). In conclusion, we present the case report of a liver transplant recipient with an anastomotic bile leak that was successfully treated with the rendezvous technique.