The cynic amongst you might associate the nomenclature with the lifestyle of surgeons that perform numerous cholecystectomies, one of the most common major operations performed in America. It is important to remember that over half of patients who have gallstones have no symptoms from them. However, once symptoms occur, they tend to progress. Basket What you see here is a stone that has been trapped in a device called a basket. The basket with the intact stone is being withdrawn from the bile duct.
Basket is used to withdraw the stone attached.
It is an Ascaris, a very common intestinal parasite that likes to live in the bile ducts. Its migration in and out of the papilla causes an intense inflammation and fibrosis in some people. They complain of recurrent episodes of severe upper abdominal pain, and may develop jaundice and fever, or other signs of cholangitis or pancreatitis. When the formation of scar tissue is advanced, they may develop a very large bile duct, and stones and strictures within the proximal biliary tree. I like to perform a laparoscopic cholecystectomy through the placement of small tubes called ports that are placed into the abdomen once it is distended with carbon dioxide.