STRICTURES of the common bile duct remain among the most perplexing problems confronting the surgeon. The history of one or more previous operations on the biliary tract in a patient who has jaundice, acholic stools, and dark urine is certainly one that will test the ingenuity of the surgeon at the time of operation.
The problem of reconstruction of the common bile duct to relieve the obstructive lesion and restore the patient to a normal physiologic state has stimulated numerous investigators to attempt a variety of methods of alleviating this situation.* McCorriston and MacKenzie3 utilized split-thickness and full-thickness skin grafts in the form of tubes implanted in the omentum of rabbits and dogs. In one animal in each group, this tube was used to convey bile from the gall bladder to the proximal portion of the jejunum. These tubes did not prove successful. Hardin and Kittle4 attempted to