If the tumor in the pancreas grows large enough to squeeze the common bile duct or block the duodenum, your health care team can suggest ways to help:
- Surgery: The surgeon can create a bypass through the blocked bile duct or duodenum. A bypass allows fluids to flow through the digestive tract. It can help relieve jaundice and pain resulting from the blockage.
- Stent: The doctor uses an endoscope to place a stent in the blocked area. A stent is a tiny plastic or metal mesh tube that helps keep the bile duct or duodenum open.
- Transhepatic Stents: Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangiogram (PTC) – on occasion the bile duct cannot be stented with an ERCP/stent/endoscopically and instead, arrangements would be made with interventional radiology where a catheter is placed in through the skin and into the liver to drain the obstructed bile.