Acquired bile duct stricture in childhood related to blunt trauma. Report of a case and review of the literature.

A 13-year-old boy had obstructive jaundice following several episodes of blunt abdominal trauma. At surgery, a stricture of the common bile duct, for which no other cause could be found, was identified and corrected. We describe our approach to the problem of obstructive jaundice in childhood. In most cases, the application of ultrasonography or computerized tomography and appropriate transhepatic cholangiography can yield a presumptive diagnosis before surgical exploration.