Anatomy of the Bile Duct Syst... Health Article

Bile is a fluid that breaks down fats during digestion. The bile ducts are a network of tubes through which bile moves. The bile ducts and gallbladder are known as the bile duct or biliary system.

Bile is made by the liver and travels down through a network of bile ducts. These ducts merge into a main right and left bile duct in the liver. Then they exit the liver and form a larger, single bile duct, called the common hepatic duct. (The word hepatic means liver.) This duct is also attached to the gallbladder, where bile is stored.

While you eat, the gallbladder releases bile to help with the digestion of food. It releases the bile into the common bile duct, which runs through the back of the pancreas and merges with the pancreatic duct. Finally the bile duct drains into the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum. In this way, the bile duct connects the liver and the gallbladder to the intestines, aiding in digestion by mixing bile and also enzymes from the pancreas. In people who have had their gallbladder removed, bile flows directly into the small intestine from the liver.

Two areas of the bile duct system can develop cancer. Most cases of bile duct cancer develop in the larger bile duct that leaves the liver and goes to the first part of the small intestine. This duct is called the extrahepaticbile duct. In a very small number of cases, bile duct cancer can develop in the network of small tubes inside the liver, called intrahepatic bile ducts.