Chronic postcolectomy pericholangitis and cholangiocarcinoma.

Two patients with long-standing pericholangitis developed unresectable cholangiocarcinoma after colectomy for chronic ulcerative colitis. The natural history of their illnesses suggest that chronic inflammation of small bile ducts in ulcerative colitis may be a precursor of biliary cancer and may also account for the increased incidence of this tumor in the colitis population.