Intermittent obstructive jaundice or Lemmel syndrome: Case report and literature review

Abstract

We present the case of a 68-year-old patient with recurrent cholangitis and the presence of a duodenal diverticulum that compresses the bile duct. Lemmel syndrome is a rare entity reported in the literature, because duodenal diverticula rarely have symptoms (10%) and are usually diagnosed incidentally, 75% of these diverticula are periampullary, if they are located within 2.5 cm from the Vater ampule are juxtapapillary. Only 1% present complications. It should be considered in case of intermittent jaundice, cholangitis, as a differential diagnosis of psuedocysts, pancreatic head tumor or metastases.