Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2023 Jan 25;15(1):e34199.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.34199. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Variant Biliary Anatomy in Biological Siblings

Affiliations
Case Reports

Variant Biliary Anatomy in Biological Siblings

Murali Dharan et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the standard of care for cholecystolithiasis but carries an increased risk of biliary injury compared to open cholecystectomy. Complications from laparoscopic cholecystectomy can be related to several factors. These include - (i) technical factors that depend on the skill of the surgeon, (ii) pathologic factors such as associated inflammation and adhesions, and (iii) anatomic factors such as biliary anatomy. Aberrant biliary anatomy is a major cause of bile duct injury during surgery. To the best of our knowledge familial aberrant biliary anatomy has not been previously reported in the literature. We report a case series of two biological sisters with isolated posterior right duct syndrome and present a brief literature review of this medical condition.

Keywords: aberrant; bile; duct; familial; posterior; right.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Cholangiogram showing variant biliary anatomy in Case 1 with a guidewire in the right posterior duct which directly joins the common hepatic duct (arrow).
RHD: right hepatic duct; LHD: left hepatic duct; CHD: common hepatic duct; CBD: common bile duct
Figure 2
Figure 2. Occlusion cholangiogram without evidence of bile leak in Case 2. Black arrow points to cholecystectomy clips and red arrow points to cystic duct remnant.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Biliary fistula between hepatic segment 6/7 and duodenum in Case 2 (arrow).
S6: hepatic segment 6; S7: hepatic segment 7; D1: first portion of duodenum; D2: second portion of duodenum

References

    1. Bile duct injuries: spectrum, mechanisms of injury, and their prevention. Martin RF, Rossi RL. Surg Clin North Am. 1994;74:781–803. - PubMed
    1. Injury to aberrant bile ducts during cholecystectomy: a common cause of diagnostic error and treatment delay. Suhocki PV, Meyers WC. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1999;172:955–959. - PubMed
    1. Isolated right posterior bile duct injury following cholecystectomy: report of two cases. Wojcicki M, Patkowski W, Chmurowicz T, et al. World J Gastroenterol. 2013;19:6118–6121. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anatomy of the biliary ducts within the human liver; analysis of the prevailing pattern of branchings and the major variations of the biliary ducts. HE JE Jr, SC PC. AMA Arch Surg. 1953;66:599–616. - PubMed
    1. Based on a study of comparative anatomy. Mentzer SH. J Am Med Assoc. 1929;93:1273–1279.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources