Complicated chloedochal cyst on liver

[ola08]

3 years ago I was diagnosed with a 2.3cm cyst on my right hepatic lobe. I seen a liver specialist, in which I had a CT scan (with and without the contrast) and blood work.  Everything came back normal and the specialist said it was something I was born with.  About a year later, I felt pain in my right upper quadrant and called the liver specialist for another visit.  An ultrasound and MRI, along with blood work, came  back that the cyst had not grown any and he still felt like it was something I was born with.  This year, I kept having intense pain in the right upper quadrant and called him for another visit.  He did an ultrasound and more blood work.  The blood work all came back fine (no elevated enzymes, no tumor markers, etc), but he does no longer think the cyst is something that needs to be left unattended to. He believes that it is a complicated chloedochal cyst and wants me to have my liver resected before it turns cancerous.  I'm more scared than I have ever been.  I'm a 24 year old female, with no other health problems. I really don't want to get my liver cut on, but I don't want cancer either.  Do you think a liver resection for this type of cyst is the best idea? What are the chances of it turning cancerous?
Thanks in advance.

[Arbyrico]

Was your bile duct removed during surgery? My husband was also born with this rare condition and is thinking of having this exact surgery. Would love to hear from you as I can't find much online about it.

[alumina]

Sorry, I meant "but female" not "and female" :P

[alumina]

Hi ola08,

Four years ago I was diagnosed with a choledochal cyst too. I found this when I went to the ER due to having a sudden onset of intense pressure/stabbing pain between my ribcage. This flare up of pain only happened once before when I was twelve but didn't go to the ER because I didn't know what it was. Those were my first symptoms.

So, the surgery involved removing the cyst and my gallbladder, as well as a performing a very extensive reconstructive surgery (Roux-en-Y hepaticojejunostomy).

Since then, I've had complications popping up after stages of feeling normal and thinking it's fixed. Like in 08 when I had an ERCP angioplasty done after feeling well for a year. Then in 09, I had sudden issues again and had interventional radiology come in and use internal/external stents to correct the issues of my bile ducts becoming dilated (they diagnose the reason for hospitalization as "cholangitis").

The reason I've been having problems is mostly because of how much they had to "cut and paste" due to the path lab showing the cells surrounding the cyst were precancerous. I was 18/19 at the time and I was born with this condition. I am no doctor but I've been dealing with this constantly for the past four years. I actually originally came to this site to ask about my symptoms now which include sharp stabbing pains in the RUQ and ribcage.

However, ironically, my liver tests have ALWAYS been normal *shrugs*

My GI believes that it's possible for one of the ducts to be draining properly while the other is slightly dilated, thus providing normal results (well, enough to be normal) on the tests since one is working.

In general, I wish you the best. I really do. I hope that this somewhat informed you since this is coming from someone who experienced this and I see that I also am around your age (and female). Feel free to ask any questions.

[Chakravarthy Mazumdar, MBBS]

Hi,
Thanks for query,

As  relapse of your pain occurred   three time that means inspite of all reports normal, there is some pathology in the liver causes this problem and it requires evaluation.
Your doctor has taken correct decision to go for resection and  diagnosis to rule out possibility of  turned out cancer.
So go for surgical intervention and find out the cause.

Wish You Good Health