Unusual variants of the tributaries of the main pancreatic duct revealed by postmortem and endoscopic pancreatography

Abstract

Analysis of 97 human postmortem pancreatograms and 103 endoscopic pancreatograms revealed a total of 3 cases (1.5%) with isolated variants in the branches of the main pancreatic duct. In the first one, tortuous branches were present in the upper head-body region. The second case involved joint tributaries bridging over an unstenosed segment of the main pancreatic duct. In the third case, we found three branches from the uncinate process running down to the main duct. In all of these cases no pathological substrate was found, and they should be considered as anatomical variants observed during interpretation of a radiogram.