Diagnostic dilemmas in biliary strictures mimicking cholangiocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Bile duct strictures may be malignant or benign. In the absence of previous biliary surgery a precise preoperative diagnosis is often difficult, in particular when a tumor mass is absent in the preoperative radiologic findings. METHODOLOGY: A review of 179 patients observed between 1982 and 2001 by the same surgical team with a preoperative diagnosis of malignant stricture of the biliary tree. A surgical procedure was performed in 153 of these cases. RESULTS: The presence of a malignant stricture was confirmed by final pathologic examination in 32 of 38 cases (96%) in which a curative resection was performed. A final diagnosis of inflammatory stricture secondary to choledocholithiasis was made in 3 of the remaining 6 cases (4%), along with one case each of sclerosing cholangitis, granular cell tumor and Mirizzi's syndrome, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Precise preoperative evaluation of biliary structures can be very difficult when a tumor mass is absent. Despite the use of invasive procedures and new techniques such as magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, a false-positive rate of 4% may be expected. However, whenever a malignancy is not definitely excluded, biliary strictures should be treated as a cholangiocarcinoma.

Mirizzi syndrome with cholecysto-choledocal fistula with a high CA19-9 level mimicking biliary malignancies: a case report.

Mirizzi syndrome type II is a form of obstructive jaundice caused by a stone impacted in the gallbladder neck or the cystic duct that impinges on the common hepatic duct with a cholecysto-choledochal fistula. Preoperative recognition is necessary to prevent injury to the common duct during surgery. We present a patient with an operative diagnosis of type II Mirizzi syndrome, which was not originally indicated in the preoperative work-up; in particular endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography showed stenosis of the middle third of the hepatic duct along with markedly elevated serum CA19-9 levels (up to 35,000 U/mL). Surgical specimen examination did not reveal the presence of neoplasia. We performed cholecystectomy and a jejunal loop was brought up and anastomosed to the common duct at the hilar level in a Roux-en-Y fashion. In cases such as ours with extensive fibrosis and inflamed tissue mimicking cholangiocarcinoma or gallbladder carcinoma, a wide hepaticojejunostomy is required to establish adequate biliary drainage.