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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Extrahepatic Bile Duct and Gall Bladder Dissection in Nine-Day-Old Mouse Neonates
Published on: August 23, 2022
Pancreatitis associated with congenital abnormalities of the pancreaticobiliary system
Terumi Kamisawa1, Naoto Egawa, Kouji Tsuruta
1Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. kamisawa@cick.jp
Background/Aims:
The relationship between pancreas divisum and pancreatitis remains controversial. The aim of this study was to examine the frequency and features of pancreatitis associated with congenital abnormalities of the pancreaticobiliary system, and the role that these malformations have in the occurrence of pancreatitis.
Methodology:
We retrospectively examined endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatograms of 6850 patients including 186 patients who were diagnosed clinically as having acute pancreatitis and 211 who were diagnosed as having chronic pancreatitis.
Results:
A total of 175 patients were diagnosed as having congenital abnormalities of pancreaticobiliary system. Acute and chronic pancreatitis was associated respectively with 3.0% and 5.0% of patients with pancreaticobiliary maljunction (n=100), 17.1% and 28.6% of those with pancreas divisum (n=35), 6.6% and 20.0% of those with partial pancreas divisum (n=30), and 16.7% and 33.3% of those with choledochocele (n=6). These anomalies were present in 6.5% and 10.9% of patients with acute and chronic pancreatitis, respectively. Isolated chronic dorsal pancreatitis was detected in 8 patients with pancreas divisum. In chronic pancreatitis associated with pancreaticobiliary maljunction, pancreatic stones or protein plugs were situated only in the dilated common channel or main pancreatic duct of the head.
Conclusions:
Congenital abnormalities of the pancreaticobiliary system constitute one etiology of pancreatitis.
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