A Case of Early Carcinoma of the Cystic Duct

Rikkoh Lee, Junichi Tanaka*, Kenji Koyama*

Department of Surgery, Tazawako Town Hospital
*First Department of Surgery, Akita University School of Medicine

We report a case of carcinoma of the cystic duct which showed a very rare tumor growth. The patient is a 74-year-old female, who complained of upper abdominal pain. There was no jaundice, no palpable mass in the right upper quadrant. Ultrasonography showed a tumor mass in the dilated extrahepatic bile duct. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiography showed a filling defect in the common hepatic and the common bile ducts. Cholecystectomy and resection of the bile duct was performed with cleaning of the regional lymphnodes under the preoperative diagnosis of carcinoma of the bile duct. The tumor arose from the cystic duct and showed papillary growth into the common bile duct intraluminally through the bifurcation and the size was 26×7 mm. Histologically it was a papillary adenocarcinoma. Cancer invasion was limited to the fibromuscular layer and the tumor was recognized as an early carcinoma of the cystic duct. Sixteen cases of carcinoma of the cystic duct reported in the literature were discussed.

Key words
early carcinoma of the cystic duct

Reprint requests
Rikkoh Lee Department of Surgery, Meiwakai Nakadohri Hospital
3-15 Misono-machi, Minamidohri, Akita, 010 JAPAN

Accepted
January 16, 1991

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.