Cholangiocarcinoma may grow from the intrahepatic bile ducts, from the bifurcation and from common hepatic or distal hepatic ducts. Each of these sites has different surgical solutions, and only complete surgical removal has chance for long term survival.
Accurate preoperative determination of the extent of infiltration allows adequate planning of the operation ranging from liver resection, resection of the bile ducts, pancreatic resection and combined liver andpancreatic resection.