What is the cause of congenital choledochal cyst?

The birth of a child brings joy to a family, but people’s diet is becoming increasingly unsafe and the environment is polluted, causing more and more children to suffer from various congenital diseases, such as congenital common bile duct cyst. Congenital common bile duct cysts can usually be discovered in infancy or childhood, and the incidence rate in girls is higher than that in boys. So why do children suffer from congenital common bile duct cyst?

The cause of congenital common bile duct cyst is still controversial. Most scholars believe that this disease is related to congenital abnormal bile and pancreatic duct junction and distal common bile duct obstruction.

1. Congenital malformation of the pancreaticobiliary junction

The so-called abnormal confluence refers to the confluence of the pancreaticobiliary duct is not in the duodenal papilla, but outside the duodenal wall or congenital malformation of the morphology and anatomy of the confluence. For example, if the common bile duct and pancreatic duct fail to separate normally during the embryonic period, this will lead to abnormal connection between the distal ends of the pancreatic duct and the common bile duct, resulting in pancreatic fluid reflux into the common bile duct, causing repeated inflammation of the common bile duct, which will destroy the elastic fibers in its wall, causing the wall to lose tension and expand. Some children will develop recurrent acute or chronic pancreatitis due to increased pressure in the pancreatic duct.

2. Biliary tract dysplasia

During the embryonic period, the proliferation of primitive bile duct epithelial cells is unbalanced. For example, excessive proliferation at the distal end may lead to stenosis at the distal end and expansion at the proximal end during cavitation, thus forming this disease. The common bile duct wall is congenitally deficient in elastic fibers. When the intraductal pressure of the bile duct increases, it gradually expands, and there is no obstruction at its distal end.

3. Viral infection

In recent years, through tissue pathological changes, it has been found that hepatitis B virus, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, etc. can cause obstruction of the bile duct lumen or weakening of the bile duct wall, resulting in bile duct deformity.

4. Abnormal nerve distribution

Some scholars have detected the nerve distribution of the common bile duct in infants and fetuses and compared it with the distribution of ganglion cells in the distal stenotic segment of children with common bile duct dilatation. The number of nerve fiber bundles and ganglion cells in the stenotic segment of the children was significantly reduced compared with that in the control group. Therefore, it is believed that the occurrence of common bile duct dilatation is related to the abnormal distribution of the distal nerve plexus and ganglion cells of the common bile duct.

In fact, no matter why the child suffers from congenital common bile duct cyst, as parents we should first take the child to check for other complications. We should know that congenital common bile duct cyst is usually accompanied by lesions in other parts of the body. In addition, we would like to remind all expectant mothers that if the jaundice of the child is severe after birth, it is important to give the child a detailed physical examination to rule out congenital common bile duct cyst.