Bile Duct Problem

[pjliving]

My gallbladder was removed years ago. Now an MRI (taken for something else) is showing that I have have an opening in a bile duct.  An ERCP was scheduled last Jan...it's now summer and I keep putting it off.  Although the Dr I saw tells me the opening is large and is a potential danger to me,  I presently have no symptoms.  Nothing I eat bothers me.  I want to know if there are any other options to get this closed besides surgery or procedures that may be risky also.  Thank you for your support.

[pjliving]

Thank you for this information....it certainly has given me "food for thought."

[CalGal]

If there is an opening of the bile duct that would allow leakage into the abdominal cavity, you could be leaking into that area. Bile can be/is a very 'caustic' substance. It helps to breakup fat that you eat and mix (emulsify) it. That action allows the fats to 'blend' with the watery substances in the digestive tract so that it can be broken down into smaller particles and picked up/taken into cells.

If the bile can do that to fat, can you imagine what the bile may be doing to the structures or possibly to the organs in your abdominal cavity? The layers of cells that surround the organs - and the structures of the cell membranes - are made up of a high proportion of 'fatty substances' like cholesterol. It means that the bile can act on those substances. If that's happening, you could have a low-grade infection going on and at some point it's going to become very apparent.

There are few options I know of if someone is leaking bile into the abdominal cavity. They can go in via ERCP and insert a stent to hopefully close off the leak and allow it to seal up, but they may also want to insert a drain to remove as much of the bile in the abdomen as possible.