What are dilated bile duct symptoms?

Question

Hello doctor,

My mother had an issue with her abdomen. It has been one or two months since she started feeling an unusual pain in the abdomen. It is accompanied by bloating and severe intestinal gas. We saw expert doctors. One of them said the gallbladder is oily.

And after seeing the result of the ultrasound, another doctor said the bile duct is dilated, and due to that, he recommended us to take an MRCP image, and we did that and received the images, but due to the COVID outbreak and especially my mother's age, which is 54 years old, we are afraid to go to the hospital and show that to the doctors who recommended us to do MRCP, and we cannot contact him online. For more information, my mother has been using opium for 25 years.

The doctor, who diagnosed the gallbladder as fatty, prescribed medications for it but my mother no longer used them such as Digestive, Merazole 20, Dimethicone Activated, Colorest Mebeverine, and Ofloxacin.

I would appreciate if you help us.

Thank you for your attention.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I reviewed the history and MRCP (magnetic resonance cholangio pancreatography) report (attachments removed to protect the patient's identity) of your mother.

Oily liver or gall bladder is not an issue. Her biliary ducts are dilated, but there is no obvious cause of dilatation. There is no stone or tumor in it. It may be secondary to chronic use of Opium, but it will need further evaluation by an endoscopic procedure called ERCP(endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography), liver function tests, and complete blood count. But in my opinion, this is not an emergency.

The probable diagnosis is opioid-induced SOD (sphincter of Oddi dysfunction).

Meanwhile, start using the following treatment, and it will help her with her symptoms. Take the tablet Rifaximin 550 mg two times after meals and a PEG (Polyethylene Glycol) sachet once at night.

Use these medications till you follow your consultant. Meanwhile, do the advised laboratory tests and let me know, I will guide you about ERCP needs.

I hope it helps.

Thank you.