Successful management of an iatrogenic biliary pseudocyst in a dog

A two-year-old, female Australian cattle dog was presented for treatment of a congenital, intrahepatic portosystemic shunt. The shunt was attenuated using a transportal approach. The dog developed an abdominal mass four weeks later. A 18-cm diameter, biliary pseudocyst arising from the hepatic surgical site was identified during ultrasonographic examination. The cyst was marsupialized to the right abdominal wall surgically. Bile-stained fluid drained from the stoma at an initial rate of 10 ml/kg body weight per day decreasing to 1 ml/kg body weight per day over four weeks. The stoma closed five weeks after surgery, and no further evidence of fluid accumulation was detected ultrasonographically. Eighteen months postoperatively the pseudocyst has not recurred.