The impact of minimally invasive palliative decompression of bile ducts on quality of life in patients with distal malignant mechanical jaundice

Palliative treatment for mechanical jaundice is aimed at improving patient quality of life (QoL) and prolonging life. The current QoL studies indicate that there is limited evidence on various techniques for decompression of bile ducts (BD) in terms of their impact on quality of life in patients with distal malignant mechanical jaundice, and their data are contradictory. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of minimally invasive palliative techniques on QoL in patients with distal mechanical jaundice (MJ) after palliative decompression of bile ducts. Materials and methods. From 2017 to 2021, 98 patients who underwent palliative decompression of bile ducts for distal MJ of malignant origin were examined. A validated MOS SF‑36 questionnaire was used to assess patient QoL. The survey was conducted before the minimally invasive intervention and 2 months after it. Depending on the technique used for decompression of BD, patients were divided into the following groups: percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) — 25, internal‑external transpapillary biliary drainage (IETBD) — 19, internal‑external biliary‑jejunal drainage (IEBJD) — 29, and endoscopic retrograde biliary stenting (ERBS) — 25. Results. Before treatment, a low level of patient QoL was detected in all groups on all scales of physical and psychological components of health (all p > 0.05). After 2 months, in the PTBD group, the indicator of the Mental Component Summary (MCS) decreased by an average of 6.9 ± 1.2 points (due to the deterioration of the indicator of social functioning scales by 12.5 ± 5.0 points and mental health by 11.1 ± 1.8 points), while the indicator of the Physical Component Summary (PCS) improved by 11.3 ± 1.1 points. In the IETBD and IEBJD groups, there was an improvement in MCS (by 11.7 ± 1.3 points and 13.0 ± 1.1 points, respectively) and PCS (by 5.2 ± 1.2 and 8.6 ± 1.1 points). With regard to MCS and PCS, slight improvement (by 4.7 ± 2.2 and 2.0 ± 1.9 points) was observed in the ERBS group. Conclusions. The IEBJD technique provided important advantages in comparison with other minimally invasive palliative techniques for decompression of BD in terms of its impact on patient QoL. Patients in the IEBJD group had better PCS scores (on average, 47.3 ± 1.3 points) compared to the IETBD (42.1 ± 1.5 points) and ERBS (39.1 ± 1.3 points, p < 0.05) groups, and those in the PTBD group (46.2 ± 1.4 points) had better scores than patients in the IETBD group (p < 0.05). In the IETBD and IEBJD groups, MCS scores were better 41.9 ± 1.1 and 40.3 ± 1.1 points, respectively) compared to the PTBD (22.6 ± 0.9 points) and ERBS (34.0 ± 1.1 points, p < 0.05) groups, and in the ERBS group, they were better than in the PTBD group.