Courvoisier's law

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Courvoisier's law (or Courvoisier syndrome, or Courvoisier's sign) states that in the presence of a palpable gall bladder, jaundice is unlikely to be caused by gall stones. This is because gall stones are formed over a longer period of time, and this results in a shrunken, fibrotic gall bladder which does not distend easily. Therefore the gall bladder is more often enlarged in pathologies which causes obstruction of the bilary tree, which occur over a shorter period of time such as pancreatic malignancy than in gallstone disease.