2018 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 263-269
A 74-year-old man with abdominal pain was referred to our hospital. He received a curative cholecystectomy for an early-stage gallbladder carcinoma (pT1bN0M0, pStage I) 14 years earlier. Imaging studies detected an advanced common bile duct cancer along with pancreaticobiliary maljunction without biliary dilatation. The patient underwent a pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy.
There have been 12 reported cases of pancreaticobiliary maljunction without bile duct dilatation, including our case, in which bile duct carcinoma developed following cholecystectomy. Comparison of cases indicated that the time period from cholecystectomy until the occurrence of bile duct carcinoma was shorter in 7 patients who had received a cholecystectomy for gallbladder carcinoma (5.4 years) than those with benign gallbladder lesions (19.5 years). Although no consensus has yet been reached about the best surgical treatment for patients with pancreaticobiliary maljunction without bile duct dilatation, careful postoperative long-term follow-up should be required in cases undergoing cholecystectomy for gallbladder carcinoma because of a possible occurrence of metachronous bile duct carcinoma.
