Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) was performed 27 times in 24 patients with obstructive jaundice, from May, 1981 to October, 1982 at Department of Radiology Severance Hospital Yonsei University, College of Medicine. Internal drainage was performed in 5 cases and external drainage in 19 cases. Daily drainage amount was correlated with the decline of serum bilirubin level. Six patients with sepsis were all improved after PTBD. This procecure effectively decompresses the sevely obstructed biliary tree prior to suggery, palliates the clinical problems in patient with unresectable malignant obstruction and controls sepsis effectively.