Cystic duct at a glance
- What it is
- The cystic duct connects the neck of the gallbladder to the common hepatic duct.
- Location
- It runs in the hepatoduodenal ligament, is about 2 to 4 cm long, and usually joins the right side of the common hepatic duct to form the bile duct.
- Function
- It allows bile to flow into the gallbladder for storage and back out for delivery to the duodenum.
- Body system
- Digestive · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA14539 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its mucosa forms spiral folds (spiral valve of Heister).
- The hepatocystic triangle is bounded by the cystic duct, common hepatic duct and inferior edge of the liver. Calot's original triangle used the cystic artery as its upper border.
Clinical relevance
The cystic artery is identified in Calot triangle during cholecystectomy; gallstones can lodge in the cystic duct causing biliary colic.
Structures next to the cystic duct
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Hepatic portal vein · cardiovascular
- Pre-hepatic portal vein · cardiovascular
- Hepatic artery proper · cardiovascular
- Stomach · digestive
- Common hepatic artery · cardiovascular
- Trunk of gastroduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Celiac artery · cardiovascular
- Celiac trunk · cardiovascular
- Gastric artery · cardiovascular
- Inferior vena cava · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Cystic duct (FMA14539). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §23.1 Overview of the Digestive System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
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