The plumbing system of ducts that runs between people's liver, gallbladder, and small intestine is how bile moves around.
Some of the bile goes to work in a person's small intestine and the rest gets stored in his or her gallbladder.
An intraoperative cholangiography is a special kind of X-ray imaging that shows those bile ducts. It's used during surgery and with a typical X-ray, the physician gets one picture; however, a cholangiography shows the doctor a live video of the patient's bile ducts so he, or she, can see what's happening in real-time.
Typically, a cholangiography is used when the patient has gallstones and he or she needs the gallbladder removed.
The doctor will make a few small cut in the person's body (called laparoscopic surgery). Then he or she will put a tiny video camera through one of the cuts to help him/her with the operation.
During this surgery, an intraoperative cholangiogram or cholangiography may help the doctor do the following:
- Check for bile-duct stones.
- Determine if stones in a person's gallbladder have moved into the bile ducts.
- The bile stones don't always cause symptoms, but they can lead to serious problems such as an infection.