Successful control of hemobilia secondary to metastatic liver cancer with transcatheter arterial embolization.

Abstract

A 54-yr-old man with multiple metastatic liver cancer was admitted to our hospital because of melena and intermittent colicky pain on the right upper abdomen. He underwent partial gastrectomy for gastric cancer 3 yr before the admission. Endoscopic examination of the duodenum on the 3rd hospital day showed active bleeding from the papilla of Vater, and diagnosis of hemobilia was done. Transcatheter arterial embolization controlled the bleeding successfully, and no rebleeding occurred until his death due to the advanced cancer 8 months later. We considered that the high vascularity of his metastatic tumor caused hemobilia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of hemobilia by metastatic liver cancer treated successfully with transcatheter arterial embolization.