[Cholestatic jaundice complicating lipomatous pseudo-hypertrophy of the pancreas]

The authors describe a major pancreatic lipomatous infiltration, causing a "pseudo-hypertrophy" of the pancreas, in a 70-year-old man. This lesion was responsible of a hyperechogenic area at ultrasonography and of an empty pancreatic bed ("vanishing pancreas") at computed tomography, suggesting lipomatosis. This entity is a special modality of senescence of pancreatic tissue whose origin remains obscure. The progressive atrophy of the acinar lobules and the islets of Langerhans was finally responsible of a mild degree of malabsorption and of diabetes type II. The compression of the main bile duct by the enlarged lipomatous pancreas, demonstrated by percutaneous cholangiography, caused a cholestatic jaundice with abdominal pain, which was treated by a surgical derivation (hepatico-duodenostomy). This is the first description of a lipomatous pseudohypertrophy of the pancreas causing an obstruction of the common bile duct.