[Cyst of the common bile duct with acute abdomen].

Congenital cysts of the bile duct are well-documented anomalies of the biliary tree. Choledochal cysts frequently cause malignant changes in the epithelial lining. In such patients, the prognosis is very poor mainly because of the lack of typical symptoms in the early stages. The incidence of carcinoma in patients with bile duct cysts is estimated at 2.5 % to 15 %, compared to an incidence of 0.012 % to 0.48 % in patients without bile duct cysts. We report the case of a 32-year-old Vietnamese woman with a history of acute epigastric pain. Exploratory surgery was performed, and the segment containing the cyst and the ectopic pancreas was resected. Sonography pointed the way, and resection would have been necessary even without the abdominal symptoms.