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Giant choledochal cyst

Published: 04/07/2012

Authors: Gunn V, Adeyi O, Jhaveri K and Wei AC

A 17-year-old woman presented with a 2-week history of mild abdominal pain and obstructive jaundice. She had a large, tender mass between the right costal margin and anterior superior iliac spine. MRI demonstrated a large cystic lesion which communicated with the cystic duct and was indistinguishable from the common bile duct (Fig. 1a). At laparotomy, there was a massive choledochal cyst extending from the ampulla of Vater to the bifurcation of the left and right hepatic ducts. This cyst contained 2200 ml of bile. A choledochectomy was performed en-bloc with aWhipple’s procedure (Fig. 1b). Pathological examination revealed the benign Type I choledochal cyst.