Disseminazione metastatica tumorale per contiguità da catetere biliare transepatico

Percutaneous transhepatic biliary decompression is a surgical procedure in patients with obstructive jaundice in use since 1973 and adopted for palliative treatment in unresectable patients or as a preoperative means of lowering serum bilirubin in patients with potentially resectable malignancies of the pancreas or biliary tract. Metastatic tumour seeding along the transhepatic biliary catheter is an unusual complication resulting from this procedure but there have been a few cases reported in literature. We report the case of a 59-year old woman in whom the percutaneous transheptatic catheter drainage of the biliary tree, performed before the surgical resection of a cholangiocarcinoma, caused a cutaneous tumour implantation at the catheter site 3 months later. A review of the literature available led us to verify that port-site metastasis in patients with obstructive jaundice treated with percutaneous transhepatic biliary decompression is an unusual but possible complication.