Extrahepatic bile ducts in healthy subjects, in patients with cholelithiasis, and in postcholecystectomy patients: A prospective ultrasonic study

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Abstract
To determine the average diameter and the upper normal limit of the common bile duct in healthy humans, 830 blood donors were examined by ultrasound. The mean diameter was 2.5 .+-. 1.1 mm (SD) at the porta hepatis and 2.8 .+-. 1.2 mm (SD) at the widest point, the regression coefficient between both diameters being r = 0.84. None of the healthy subjects had a diameter > 7 mm at any site and in 95% of all subjects the diameters were < 4 mm at both sites of measurement. The diameters were significantly correlated with age (r = 0.16) and weight (r = 0.11), but not with sex, height and body surface area. In 73 patients with cholelithiasis and in 55 patients after cholecystectomy, all of whom lacked clinical or laboratory signs of biliary obstruction, the average diameters at the porta hepatis were 3.8 .+-. 2.0 mm and 5.2 .+-. 2.3 mm and at the widest point 4.8 .+-. 2.2 mm and 6.2 .+-. 2.5 mm, respectively. A common bile duct with any sonographic diameter > 4 mm should be followed closely and evaluated further with clinical examinations, such as i.v. cholangiography unless cholecystectomy has been performed.