Nearly 60% of PSC patients develop dominant biliary stenosis (biliary stricture) during their disease course.
If stenoses and/or strictures (high-grade narrowings) are present, endoscopic dilatation (widening, i.e., bougienage, balloon dilatation) or stent implantation (insertion of a stent; “vascular bridge”) is performed
In the final stage of primary sclerosing cholangitis, i.e., when the liver is no longer functioning adequately, liver transplantation (LTx) should be performed. It accounts for 6% of liver transplants.
Further notes
- Regular endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography (ERCP) with balloon dilatation of the bile ducts significantly slowed disease progression – survival without liver transplantation of patients increased by an average of 6.7 years.
- After liver transplantation, recurrence rates (reoccurrence) of PSC are described between 8.6 and 47%.
- In the presence of comorbidity (concomitant disease) “inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)” – 60-80% of PSC sufferers simultaneously suffer from ulcerative colitis (chronic inflammatory disease of the mucosa of the rectum (rectum) and possibly. of the colon (large intestine)) and 7-21% of Crohn’s disease (chronic inflammatory bowel disease that can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract (from the oral cavity to the anus)) – the presence of ulcerative colitis is the greatest predictor (prediction) of the occurrence of a PSC relapse
