[Case of Caroli's disease].

Multiple communicating cysts of the biliary tree, or Caroli's disease (Caroli, 1958), may represent a rare variant of the less uncommon choledochal cyst (Esguerra-Gomez and RiverosGamboa, 1965). Reviewing 500 cases of choledochal cyst, Lee (1969) quotes only one of multiple cysts (Engle and Salmon, 1964). Of three cases similar to the one reported here one presented at the age of 43 with acute cholecystitis (Glenn, 1971); another, aged 31, with recurrent upper abdominal pain (Esguerra-Gomez and Riveros-Gamboa, 1965); and the third, aged 10, with traumatic biliary peritonitis (Engle and Salmon, 1964). In none was the full implications of the diagnosis realized at the first operation and each patient required further surgery. Two are now symptom free with a choledochojejunostomy, and the third has a choledochoduodenostomy.