Published online Nov 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i42.6728
Revised: December 12, 2004
Accepted: December 14, 2004
Published online: November 14, 2005
Generalized biliary peritonitis is a serious intra-abdominal emergency. Most of them occur due to duodenal ulcer perforation and rapidly evolve into bacterial peritonitis due to contamination by gut organisms and food. In this situation, recognition of the pathology and its treatment is straightforward and is usually associated with a good outcome. There are a few unusual causes of biliary peritonitis, of which rupture of the biliary tree is one. We describe a rare case of biliary peritonitis due to rupture of an intra-hepatic biliary radical. Unusual causes of peritonitis do interrupt our daily routine emergency surgical experience. Rapid recognition of the presence of peritonitis, adequate resuscitation, recognition of operative findings, establishment of biliary anatomy, and performance of a meticulous surgical procedure resulted in a good outcome.