BACKGROUND:Biliary stricture following liver transplantation is mainly focus on biliary stoma stricture; while, balloon dilatation temporarily keeps biliary tract open but not works out a solution at all.OBJECTIVE: To discuss the diagnosis and treatment of postoperative biliary stricture after orthotopie liver transplantation by the endoscope technique.DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: A case analysis, which was performed at Dalian Liver and Gall Surgical Institute. Ten patients hospitalized from the Department of Liver and Gall Surgery of Dalian Friendship Hospital and four patients hospitalized from the Department of Organ Transplantation of Tianjin First Central Hospital were diagnosed as biliary stricture after orthotopic liver transplantation.PARTICIPANTS: Among 14 patients, 10 males and 4 females with mean age of 46 years provided end-to-end biliary anastomose.METHODS: Fourteen cases of postoperative biliary stricture after orthotopic liver transplantation were analyzed and diagnosed by endoscope technique. And by endoscope technique, the stricture was supported with tube after balloon dilatation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Bile duct mucous membrane under T-tube radiography and endoscope; calculary distribution and bile duct mucous membrane at stoma; healing of biliary stoma of donors and recipients; inflammatory edema and stricture; recheck of above-mentioned parameters after stricture expansion by endoscopic stone extraction technique.RESULTS: Thirteen cases of postoperative biliary stricture after orthotopic liver transplantation were analyzed and diagnosed by endoscope technique, including one was induced by calculus, and one non-stoma stricture. One case was treated with balloon dilation; biliary infection and jaundice occurred in 2 cases after endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) + basket lithotripsy + endoscopic nasobiliary drainage (ENBD), so operations or fibrocholedochoscope treatments had to be carried out. By T tube radiography, in 1 case there was strip-like negative simulacrum or no stricture, well-healed anastomosis and good mucous membranel transition; poor or no intrahepatic visualization were found in 2 cases, so anastomosis dilation was processed after the calculi removal by fibrocholedochoscope, stricture disappeared in 3 or 4 months; in 8 cases there were blur extrahepatic or intrahepatic biliary visualization, cord-like, column or branch-like negative simulacrum in biliary ducts and sign of non-anastomosis stricture, after removal of calculi, anastomosis stricture and congestion, edema were found, all these disappeared after average 2.5 months of dilation; the other 1 case was found stricture by T the radiography, but no calculi was found with fibrocholedochoscope, finally the Ttube was removed after 2 months of stricture dilation.CONCLUSION: Endoscopy is significant to directly reflect and reliably diagnose postoperative biliary stricture and effectively treat biliary stricture by anastomosis dilation.