Blocked Bile Duct Pancreatic Cancer

A stent for a blocked bile duct is usually put in using a procedure called an endoscopic retrograde cholangio pancreatography ercp.

Blocked bile duct pancreatic cancer.

This can cause pain and digestive problems because bile can t get into the intestine. Your doctor may recommend that a plastic or metal tube stent be placed inside the bile duct to hold it open. Pancreatic cancers can cause a bile duct obstruction if the tumor enters. Apart from cancer gallstones can also cause the gallbladder to swell if it blocks the cystic duct or bile duct.

Obstruction of the bile duct can lead to infection of the bile drainage system or cholangitis. Cancers growing in the head of the pancreas can block the common bile duct as it passes through this part of the pancreas. As with pancreatic cancer bile duct cancer generally affects the older population and is more common in men than in women. If the pancreatic cancer is blocking your bile duct and causing jaundice you may have a stent put into the bile duct.

It can block the bile duct or the main pancreatic duct. Signs include yellow skin and eyes dark colored urine and pale colored stools. This may be due to the tumor obstructing the bile duct and causing liver cell destruction and scarring. The bile chemicals will also build up in the body which can cause jaundice nausea vomiting and other problems.

Bile duct cancer does not usually cause signs or symptoms until later in the course of the disease but sometimes symptoms can appear sooner and lead to an early diagnosis. If the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage treatment might work better. Jaundice usually occurs without abdominal pain. Pancreatic cancer that blocks the liver s bile duct can cause jaundice.

Bile duct cancer refers to all cancers that develop within the biliary system. Blood clots pancreatic cancer increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis dvt which is when a blood clot forms in a large vein often in the leg. Bile duct cancer cancer of the bile duct is much more rare than pancreatic cancer with just 1 000 cases per year in the uk. As the tumour enlarges.

This multiplies and a tumour then develops in and around the duct. The resulting tumors may block a bile duct. This is especially true in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis. This type of cancer develops from a cell which becomes cancerous in the pancreatic duct.

This stops the drainage of bile and or pancreatic fluid into the first part of the gut known as the duodenum. Cirrhosis may develop in bile duct cancer.