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Three patients with bleeding into the bile ducts were explored by angiography. Two of them (severe post-operative bleeding and following needle-biopsy of the liver) were completely cured by highly selective arterial embolus production. No definite diagnosis was established in the third case (liver angioma with large artero-portal fistula). It can be seen from these observations, that angiography is essential in patients with bleeding into the bile ducts. The reason is not to establish the diagnosis but to find the precise location of the lesion and, under certain conditions, to apply radical treatment by highly selective arterial embolus production.

Thirty five cases of hepatic arterial embolisation are reported. The analgesic effect in association with tumour pathology (27 cases) was virtually constant (80% of cases). Arterial embolisation should thus replace surgical disarterialisation in the management of malignant tumours of the liver. It improves the quality of survival in painful tumours, above all when they are hypervascularised. Two fatal complications as a result of the technique emphasise the absolute need to respect its contraindications: portal thrombosis, even segmental, or hepatic failure. Two cavernous haemangiomas and one angioma with arterioportal fistula complicated by haemobilia were also successfully embolised. Five traumatic vascular lesions, two of which resulted in severe haemobilia, also benefited from superselective embolisation.