Judie Noemie Hoilat

By Gilles Jadd Hoilat, Judie Noemie Hoilat, Mohamad Fekredeen Ayas, Sana Riaz and Divey Manocha

A variety of benign etiologies of biliary stricture may initially be mistaken for hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Consequently, many patients undergo surgery for a benign disease that could have been treated medically. Eosinophilic cholangitis (EC) is an uncommon, benign, self-limiting disease that should be considered when approaching a case of obstructive jaundice since it causes biliary stricture formation. Transmural eosinophilic infiltration of the biliary tree is characteristic of EC. It may initially be indistinguishable from hilar cholangiocarcinoma. We worked on a case of a patient who was referred to our hospital for jaundice and abdominal mass investigation with the provisional diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma. During the workup, the index of suspicion for malignancy remained high as the typical laboratory and radiological findings for benign causes of biliary stricture were not present. Hence, the patient underwent left hepatectomy with caudate lobe resection and received a retrograde diagnosis of EC. The case demonstrates that EC could present in the elderly with cardinal signs of cancer and absence of the typical findings of EC which was not previously reported. Furthermore, this disorder has been reported to respond well to steroid therapy, hence, diagnostic criteria for EC would provide another treatment option for elderly and/or those who are not fit for surgery.

Part of the book: Cells of the Immune System