What are the dangers of bile duct dilatation?

The harm of bile duct dilatation is relatively large. It is a pathological condition with many causes, such as the appearance of stones or cysts. Both of them can easily cause the bile duct to dilate, often leading to abdominal pain and jaundice in patients, and can easily cause abdominal lumps. If they become more serious, they may be accompanied by infection, causing severe pain in patients and fever.

What are the dangers of bile duct dilatation?

Abdominal mass, abdominal pain, and jaundice are considered the classic triad of symptoms of this disease. The abdominal mass is located in the right upper abdomen, below the rib margin. A large one may occupy the entire right abdomen. The mass is smooth and spherical, with an obvious cystic elasticity. When the cyst is filled with bile, it may feel solid, like a tumor.

However, the size often changes. During infection, pain, and jaundice, the lump will increase in size, and may shrink slightly after the symptoms are relieved. Small bile duct cysts are difficult to palpate due to their deep location. Abdominal pain occurs in the middle or right upper abdomen. The nature and severity of the pain vary. Sometimes it is persistent bloating and sometimes it is colic. Patients often lie prone with their knees bent and refuse to eat to relieve the symptoms.

The onset of abdominal pain indicates obstruction of the bile duct outlet, increased pressure in the common duct, and pancreatic juice and bile can flow back and forth, causing symptoms of cholangitis or pancreatitis. Therefore, it is often accompanied by fever and sometimes nausea and vomiting clinically. Symptoms are often accompanied by increased blood and urine amylase levels. Jaundice is mostly intermittent and is often the main symptom in young children. The depth of jaundice is directly related to the degree of biliary obstruction.

In mild cases, there may be no jaundice clinically, but with the onset of infection and pain, jaundice may appear temporarily, the stool color may become lighter or grayish white, and the urine color may become darker. The above symptoms are intermittent. Due to the obstruction of the distal bile duct outlet, pancreaticobiliary reflux can cause clinical symptoms. When bile can flow smoothly, the symptoms will be alleviated or disappear. The intervals between attacks vary in length, some attacks are frequent, and some are asymptomatic for a long time.

The main treatment method is to prevent and treat cholangitis, with long-term use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, but the treatment effect is generally unsatisfactory. Due to the extensive nature of the lesions, surgical treatment is often unsuccessful. If the lesions are limited to one lobe, liver lobectomy may be performed, but it is reported that less than one-third of cases can be resected. The long-term prognosis is extremely poor.