This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Oncology, Other  • Liver/ Biliary Tract/ Pancreatic Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic

Steven C. Stain, MD
Nashville, Tenn

Arch Surg. 2002;137:468.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The series of 30 adult patients with choledochal cysts by Dr Liu and his coauthors is an important contribution to the literature regarding the natural course of this disease. At their referral center, they identified biliary malignancy in 9 (30%) of 30 patients. Most important, none of these 9 patients was cured. Five were not candidates for potentially curative resection at the time of presentation, and the 4 patients treated by pancreatoduodenectomy died 5 to 38 months after operation.

The development of malignancy in a larger proportion of patients with choledochal cysts is beyond dispute. This high incidence of cancer is compelling evidence for surgical resection at the time a choledochal cyst is diagnosed, even in the absence of symptoms. It equally apparent that, once cancer has development within the biliary tree, cure is unlikely, even despite indicated aggressive surgical resection. It has been recognized for . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLE

Choledochal Cysts in Adults
Chi-Leung Liu, Sheung-Tat Fan, Chung-Mau Lo, Chi-Ming Lam, Ronnie Tung-Ping Poon, and John Wong
Arch Surg. 2002;137(4):465-468.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT