Common bile duct

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Common bile duct
Digestive system diagram showing the common bile duct
The gall-bladder and bile ducts laid open.
Latin	ductus choledochus
Gray's	subject #250 1198
Dorlands/Elsevier	d_29/12314771

Bile, which is synthesized in the liver, is carried to the right and left hepatic ducts, which converge to form the common hepatic duct. There, it can either enter the superior end of the common bile duct and empty into the duodenum, or enter the cystic duct to be stored in the gallbladder.

The inferior end of the common bile duct merges with the large pancreatic duct ("duct of Wirsung") from the pancreas, into the ampulla of Vater. There, the two ducts are surrounded by the muscular hepatopancreatic sphincter (sphincter of Oddi) which if contracted, prevents bile from entering the small intestine.

[edit] Additional images

Region of pancreas	The celiac ganglia with the sympathetic plexuses of the abdominal viscera radiating from the ganglia.	Horizontal disposition of the peritoneum in the upper part of the abdomen.	Interior of the descending portion of the duodenum, showing bile papilla.
Inferior surface of the liver.	The pancreas and duodenum from behind.	The pancreatic duct.	The portal vein and its tributaries.
Liver and gallbladder

[edit] External links

• SUNY Figs 38:06-08 - "The gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts."
• SUNY Anatomy Image 8336
• SUNY Anatomy Image 7957
• Norman/Georgetown liver (biliarysystem)

Digestive glands v • d • e
Pancreas (Tail, Body, Head, Islets of Langerhans) | Gallbladder | Liver (Hepatocyte, Space of Disse, Kupffer cell, Liver sinusoid, Hepatic stellate cell, Hepatic lobule) Bile ducts: (Bile canaliculus, Common hepatic duct, Cystic duct, Common bile duct) | Pancreatic duct | Hepatopancreatic ampulla