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CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Hepatobiliary Diseases
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1522046
This article is part of the Research Topic Case Reports in Hepatobiliary Diseases View all 16 articles
Afferent loop obstruction induced by gallstone ileus after Whipple procedure: a case report and literature review
Provisionally accepted- Taicang Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Taicang, China
Afferent loop obstruction (ALO) induced by gallstone ileus after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) is rare. We present a case of ALO after the Whipple procedure in a 62-year-old male with a rare cause of gallstone ileus. He was admitted to the hospital with epigastric pain, fever, and jaundice two years after experiencing intermittent abdominal pain. With the help of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) gallstone ileus was confirmed and the patient underwent emergency surgery. Intraoperative findings indicated that internal herniation, adhesions and a stuck intra-pancreatic duct catheter caused gallstone formation and eventually led to ALO. The patient underwent prompt surgical intervention and ultimately recovered well. This case report holds a significant potential to contribute to the focus on the details of the Whipple procedure to prevent ALO and gallstone ileus.
Keywords: Afferent loop obstruction, Gallstone ileus, Whipple procedure, Internal hernia, Pancreatojejunostomy
Received: 03 Nov 2024; Accepted: 25 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Xu, Chang, Gu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Danfeng Shen, Taicang Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Taicang, China
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