Percutaneous approach to the diagnosis and treatment of biliary tract malignancies.

The role of percutaneous, transhepatic management of biliary tract malignancies is to provide diagnostic and palliative care for improving patient quality of life. To treat and manage biliary tract malignancies successfully, particularly in patients who have inoperable disease, percutaneous interventions, such as biliary decompression and catheter-directed liver therapies, must be available. Although most vascular interventions do not yet commonly produce significant increased survivability in patients who have biliary tract malignancies, continued advances in percutaneous technologies suggest that future benefits in life expectancy may be achieved.