Synonyms
Bile ductThe bile duct belongs to a duct system between the liver, pancreas and intestine. In this system, bile flows from the liver to the duodenum. In the broadest sense, the gallbladder can also be counted among the bile duct system.
Anatomy
Bile is formed in the liver. In addition to water, this bile contains bile salts and enzymes as well as decomposition substances of the liver. This bile must ultimately reach the intestines, where it is involved in digestion.
The bile is especially necessary for the digestion and decomposition of fats. To get to its place of action, there is the bile duct or bile ducts. These connect the liver with the duodenum.
The gallbladder is located between the liver and the opening into the duodenum, and is thus also connected to the bile duct. The bile duct can be distinguished according to whether it runs inside the liver (intrahepatic bile ducts) or already outside the liver (extrahepatic bile ducts). A bile duct in the liver forms directly between the liver cells (hepatocytes) and passes through the corresponding hepatic lobule.
This bile duct virtually makes up the space between the opposite cells. This bile duct or bile ducts is called canaliculi biliferi. There are many of them, because they run in a row between all liver cells.
These canaliculi biliferi end in short switch or intermediate pieces (called herring tubules). This bile duct is very small and has a diameter of about 10 – 15 μm. These herring tubules then merge into another bile duct in the so-called periportal fields.
This is then called Ductuli biliferi interlobulares, i.e. the bile duct that runs between the lobes. A periportal field is a characteristic structure of the liver. Here, several liver lobes are adjacent to each other.
A periportal field contains the so-called glisson triad. The glisson triad comprises an artery, a vein and the bile duct (Ductuli biliferi interlobulares). Several of these bile ducts (Ductuli biliferi interlobulares) then merge somewhat later to form another bile duct, the Ductus hepaticus dexter and sinister.
These are two bile ducts that ultimately lead the entire bile formed in the liver from the left (sinister) and right (dexterous) liver lobes. Up to this point each bile duct is still in the liver (intrahepatic). The hepatic orifice is the point in the liver where blood vessels and bile duct exit the liver.
Shortly before the hepatic orifice, the two bile ducts of the left and right lobe unite to form a common bile duct. This is called the common bile duct. From this bile duct onwards, the following bile duct structures are considered to form the bile duct system outside the liver (extrahepatic).
The common bile duct (Ductus hepaticus communis) is about 4 cm long. From this bile duct the bile flows into the cystic duct. This bile duct leads to the gall bladder.
Here the bile produced can be temporarily stored. At the fork in the hepatic and cystic ducts, a last bile duct, the choledochal duct, leads to the duodenum. This last bile duct leads behind the intestine to the pancreas. Here it merges with a bile duct coming from the pancreas (Ductus pancreaticus) and opens together on the papilla duodeni major (Papilla Vateri) into the duodenum.
