Extrahepatic biliary obstruction and liver failure secondary to myeloma of the pancreas.

An unusual case of multiple myeloma in an 88-year-old patient is described. Besides skeletal involvement, there was myeloma of the thoracic and abdominal lymph nodes and of the liver and pancreas. In the pancreas, the myeloma extensively involved the head and body, and on computerized tomography scan was suggestive of a pancreatic carcinoma. The myeloma caused extrinsic compression of the common bile duct, resulting in severe jaundice and hepatic and renal failure. To the author's knowledge this is the second such case of pancreatic myeloma causing extrahepatic biliary obstruction.