ANOMALOUS BILE DUCTS IN MAN

Abstract

Anomalous structures in the biliary tract of man have not attracted much interest until recent years. Reports of surgical catastrophes consequent on their presence have stimulated new studies in this field. A review of the comparative anatomy of the gallbladder and bile ducts suggests that most of the anomalous biliary structures in man represent normal arrangements in lower animals. When one considers the development of man, it is surprising that there are not many more instances of vestigial structures, such as persistent branchial clefts, webed feet, remnant tails, accessory lobes of the liver, and vestigial biliary tracts. Eisendrath¹states that anomalous biliary ducts are found in about 8 per cent of routine necropsies in man. Flint²found only sixty-nine instances of normal duct and arterial trees in 200 cadavers, while Brewer³found but three in fifty dissections. Many of these variations were due to abnormalities in the