1983 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 53-61
Operative cholangiograms of 34 patients with infantile obstructive jaundice were analysed concerning the size of the common bile duct, simultaneous visualization of the pancreatic duct and bilio-pancreatic common channel, and the length of the common channels. The 34 patients consisted of 19 subtype "a" biliary atresia, 7 neonatal hepatitis and 8 hepatic ductular hypoplasia. The size of the common bile ducts in subtype "a" biliary atresia ranged from about 0. 5 mm to 1.2 mm in diameter. From an analysis of operative results after hepatic portocholecystostomy, this procedure should be abandoned when a size of the common bile duct was less than 1. 0 mm in patients of subtype "a" biliary atresia. The pancreatic ducts were visualized simultaneously in 17 of 18 subtype "a" biliary atresia, in 6 of 7 neonatal hepatitis, and in all of 6 hepatic ductular hypoplasia patients. The bilio-pancreatic common channel were also present on the cholangiograms in 14 of 16 subtype "a." biliary atresia, in 3 of 7 neonatal hepatitis and in all of 6 hepatic ductular hypoplasia patients. The presence of common channel in patients with these diseases appeared not to be pathologic but to be physiologic condition in this age.
