[Cystic dilatation of the common bile duct with cholangitis, jaundice and cholestatic cirrhosis].

The authors present a clinical observation of a patient aged 60 years with an asymptomatic cystic dilatation of the choledochus up to the age of 56, and in whom hepatic cirrhosis was detected, with biliary cholestasis, and a slow, torpid evolution. The authors performed cystoduodenostomy of necessity. A review of the literature over the last 20 years allows for a discussion of the clinical, etiopathogenic, and especially of the therapeutical aspects of this malformation. In spite of the current trend to perform exeresis of the cyst according to American and Japanese surgeons, the authors of the present study consider the internal derivation with the aid of a jejunal loop "àla Roux" may result in durable recoveries in at least two-thirds of the interventions, with a minimal surgical risk. If this type of interventions fails there is still possible to carry out iterative extirpation.