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12 short steps · about 10 minutes to read
Step through Biliary drain
When a bile duct is blocked, bile backs up into the liver and turns your skin and eyes yellow. A biliary drain is a thin tube that goes through the skin of your right side and through the liver into the blocked duct. It is usually put in while you are relaxed and numbed, and it lets the bile drain again so the yellow colour and itching can settle. Your letter may call it PTBD.
The short version
- A biliary drain is a thin, soft tube put through the skin of your right side and through the liver into a blocked bile duct, so bile can drain again.
- It is done in the IR department with numbing medicine and medicine to relax you, and it often takes about an hour.
- Bile drains into a bag outside your body, or past the blockage into your bowel, and the yellow colour and itching should slowly get better.
- You will learn to care for the drain at home. If you need it for a long time, it is changed every 2 to 3 months, and some people later get a stent so the drain and bag can come out.
Up nextYour liver makes bile, and small tubes carry it to your bowel
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