Value of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance cholangiography in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the preferred treatment for symptomatic gallstone disease. Biliary injury during LC is still a serious problem. Knowledge of anatomic detail is important for not encountering the injury. Magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) is a noninvasive method for imaging the biliary ducts. However, MRC has many drawbacks such as not showing anatomic structures in detail and respiratory motion. In this study, contrast-enhanced MRC was used to show cystic ducts that are not seen on MRC. Reasons for patient referral for MRC and contrast-enhanced MRC included suspicion of cholecystolithiasis, adenomyomatosis, and gallbladder polyp. Our results show that routine MRC revealed cystic ducts in 38 patients (77.5%) and contrast-enhanced MRC in 46 patients (93.8%). Intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) was taken as gold standard for all patients. We found that contrast-enhanced MRC can provide a useful supplement to MRC in patients with cystic ducts not seen on MRC. To our knowledge, this is the first study of visualization of a cystic duct in patients undergoing LC depicted by both MRC and contrast-enhanced MRC.