Communicating Accessory Bile Duct: A Report of Two Cases

Kazunori Nishimura, Hideki Matsuo, Tsuyoshi Tamae, Shuichi Fukuda, Hisafumi Kinoshita and Shigeaki Aoyagi

Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine

We report 2 cases of communicating accessory bile duct, Case 1: A52-year-old man diagnosed with intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile duct stones referred to our hospital was found in cholangiograrhy to have a ramification of the posterior inferior subsegmental branch (B6) from the common bile duct. B6 was connected to the anterior segmental branch upstream. The cystic duct was discovered close to the root of B6. A biopsy specimen from the lumen of the communication between B6 and the anterior segmental branch showed hyperplastic biliary mucosa with peribiliary glands. Case 2: A 72-year-old man diagnosed with gallbladder and common bile duct stones undergoing percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage was found in cholangiography to have the accessory bile duct originating from the common bile duct, and the cystic duct deriving from the accessory bile duct. The accessory bile duct was connected to the right hepatic duct at the hilum of the liver. The communicating accessory bile duct may easily be confused with other anomalies of the biliary tree. We detail the classification of this congenital abnormality and its types.

Key words
communicating accessory bile duct, anomalous of biliary tract, duplication of biliary tract

Reprint requests
Kazunori Nishimura Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine 67 Asahi-machi, Kurume-shi, 830-0011 JAPAN

Accepted
June 25, 2002

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