[Caroli's disease. Presentation of 8 cases studied with ERCP]

Eight patients with Caroli's Disease are presented, studied by Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) from January 1976 through January 1990. In this period of time 1,525 procedures were carried out, this entity thus representing 0.52% of patients submitted to ERCP in our population. Six patients were females, being female: male ratio 3:1. Mean age was 52 years (range: 40-75). All patients presented a clinical history of recurring episodes of abdominal pain and/or crisis of cholangitis. In the ERCP carried out in these eight patients, cystic dilatation of intrahepatic left lobe bile ducts were confirmed in five patients, dilatation generalized to both lobes in two, and affecting exclusively the right lobe in one patient.