Viscera (heart, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract)
Common bile duct
Ductus choledochus (Ductus biliaris)
- Origin
- Formed in the hepatoduodenal ligament by the confluence of the cystic duct and common hepatic duct
- Insertion
- Descends posterior to the first part of the duodenum and through the pancreatic head, entering the descending duodenum at the ampulla of Vater (major duodenal papilla)
- Function
- Transports bile from the liver and gallbladder into the duodenum for lipid digestion
- Innervation
- Celiac and hepatic plexuses
- Movement & chain
- Flow regulated by the sphincter of Oddi (sphincter ampullae)
- Palpation
- Not palpated directly
- Clinical
- Choledocholithiasis (common bile duct gallstone causing obstructive jaundice), acute ascending cholangitis (Charcot's triad: fever, RUQ pain, jaundice; Reynolds' pentad adds shock and altered mental status), cholangiocarcinoma.
- Segmental innervation
- T7-T9 spinal levels
- In clinical practice
- Emergency triage for acute cholangitis, pre/post-ERCP sphincterotomy nursing protocols, T-tube drainage output recording
- Region in the model
- Viscera (heart, lungs, liver, gastrointestinal tract)