Article Text

Download PDFPDF
CASE REPORT
Possible congenital dilatation of the pancreatic duct
  1. Abhijeet Tavare1,
  2. Alex N Gordon-Weeks2,
  3. Helen Bungay3,
  4. Michael Silva4
  1. 1Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  2. 2Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  3. 3Department of Radiology, Oxford University Hospitals Trust, Oxford, UK
  4. 4Department of HPB Surgery, Oxford University Hospital, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Abhijeet Tavare, abhijeet.tavare{at}balliol.ox.ac.uk

Summary

The main pancreatic duct can become dilated in a number of conditions. We describe a patient with gross dilatation of the main pancreatic duct without evidence of causative underlying pathology suggesting congenital dilatation of the pancreatic duct. A 36-year-old man presented with signs of intestinal obstruction and a history of surgery for congenital pyloric stenosis. Incidental findings on CT showed a massively dilated main pancreatic duct. On MRI there was no duct irregularity or solid mural nodule, making a main duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm unlikely. Endoscopic ultrasound findings were in keeping with those on MRI. Fine needle aspiration revealed a non-viscous fluid with a low carcinoembryonic antigen and high amylase concentration, consistent with normal pancreatic fluid levels rather than a mucinous collection. After 1 year, the cyst remains unchanged. This patient will be kept under surveillance with yearly MRI.

  • pancreas and biliary tract
  • pancreatitis
  • surgery
  • general surgery

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors AT, ANG-W, HB and MS contributed equally to the writing and editing of the manuscript. MS was the consultant surgeon involved in the patient’s care.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.