[Echinococcosis of the bile ducts as an unusual cause of obstructive jaundice].

A 31 year old Turkish woman patient was hospitalized with a febrile obstructive jaundice. Despite extensive diagnostics (clinical laboratory values, sonography, computed tomography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography), emergency laparotomy had to be carried out without definitive clarification of the cause of the obstruction. Intraoperatively, bile duct infiltration by Echinococcus cysticus was established. In the further course under pharmacotherapy with mebendazole without detection of cysts in the liver and in regression of the serological parameters, there was a recurrence after half a year with suppurative obstructive cholangitis and biliary pancreatitis. The clinical picture could be controlled promptly by endoscopic papillotomy.