Total Laparoscopic Resection of an Extrahepatic Mucinous Biliary Cystadenoma with Liver Involvement (with Video)

Intrahepatic mucinous biliary cystadenoma is rare, and extrahepatic MBC is even rarer. To our knowledge, total laparoscopic resection of an extrahepatic MBC that had extended intrahepatically has never been reported.

A 28-year-old female presented to our hospital with upper abdomen pain. Radiological investigations demonstrated a 7-cm multiloculated cystic lesion arising from the left hepatic bile duct extending to involve the extrahepatic biliary system down to and posterior to the back of the head of pancreas. The entire extrahepatic bile duct was involved, except for the gallbladder. Laparoscopic surgery was carried out using a five-port approach. A gourd-shaped well-defined multiloculated cyst was found extending from the extrahepatic biliary system proximally to involve the left hepatic duct intrahepatically. After cholecystectomy, the gourd-shaped cyst was opened at its narrowest part at the hepatic hilus to facilitate subsequent resectional surgery. The distal sac was dissected to the distal bile duct end at the duodenal wall and transected. The proximal sac was dissected and resected en bloc with the bifurcation of the right/left hepatic ducts, combined with left hepatectomy plus caudate lobectomy. The reconstruction was done by anastomosing the right anterior and posterior sectional bile ducts to a Roux-en-Y jejunal loop. Multiple intraoperative frozen sections demonstrated the lesion to be a benign MBC.

The patient was discharged home 12 days after surgery. She was well on follow-up 24 months after surgery.

Total laparoscopic resection is technically feasible to treat an extrahepatic MBC with intrahepatic extension.