Article
The preoperatively normal bile duct does not dilate after
cholecystectomy: results of a five year study
A W Majeeda, B Rossb, A G Johnsona
a Department of
Surgical and Anaesthetic Sciences, K-Floor, Royal Hallamshire Hospital,
Sheffield S10 2JF, UK, b Department of Radiology, University of
Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Correspondence to: Mr Majeed.
Accepted for publication 2 June 1999
BACKGROUND
The common hepatic duct
(CHD) is commonly believed to dilate after cholecystectomy but previous
studies have either not measured CHD diameter preoperatively or the
follow up period is short.
AIMSTo measure CHD diameter before
and after cholecystectomy.
METHODSPatients undergoing (open)
cholecystectomy and operative cholangiography had ultrasonographic
measurement of CHD diameter before, and three and six months, and one
and five years after cholecystectomy. The normal duct diameter was
considered to be 5 mm or less, with an observer error of ±1 mm.
RESULTSFifty nine patients with
normal diameter ducts were studied. The majority (more than 95%) of
patients did not have a dilatation of the CHD beyond 6 mm after
cholecystectomy. The CHD appeared to increase as well as decrease with
an overall trend towards a minor increase at five years. This was not
statistically significant if the margin of error of 1 mm was taken into account.
CONCLUSIONA preoperatively normal
CHD does not dilate after cholecystectomy and may require further
investigation in symptomatic patients.
Keywords: common hepatic duct; ultrasonography; cholecystectomy; bile duct dilatation
© 1999 by Gut
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