Courvoisier's law

The Courvoisier's sign ( after the Swiss surgeon Ludwig Georg Courvoisier ) is a clinical sign which denotes a tactile ( palpation perceptible ), plump and elastic -filled gallbladder in combination with a ( On inspection ) recognizable jaundice. In contrast to Murphy's sign the gallbladder is not painful because it usually is a chronic event at Courvoisier's sign.

Cause of the Courvoisier sign is usually a tumor-related closure of the bile duct, usually as a result of pancreatic cancer or cholangiocarcinoma.

Rare differential diagnoses in Courvoisier's sign are: relocation of the bile duct by a gallstone ( painless choledocholithiasis ), cicatricial changes in the major duodenal papilla (so-called stenosing papillitis ) or a stricture of the bile duct with primary sclerosing cholangitis.