Bile Duct in Spanish

How do the bile ducts connect?

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the smallest ducts inside the liver, called ductules, come together to form the right and left hepatic ducts, which lead out of the liver. The two ducts join outside the liver and form the common hepatic duct. The cystic duct from the gallbladder joins the common hepatic duct to form the common bile duct, which passes through the pancreas and ends in the small intestine.

What can block the bile ducts?

MedlinePlus says different diseases can block the bile ducts and cause a problem with the flow of bile. Its list includes gallstones, cancer, infections, birth defects such as biliary atresia, and inflammation, which can cause scarring.

What it means

A bile duct is a tube through which bile passes in and out of the liver. The liver makes bile, a digestive juice that helps break down fat, and the gallbladder stores it between meals. When a person eats, the gallbladder pushes the bile into tubes called bile ducts, which carry it to the small intestine. The National Cancer Institute describes two groups: intrahepatic bile ducts, a network of small tubes that carry bile inside the liver, and extrahepatic bile ducts, small tubes that carry bile from the liver and gallbladder to the small intestine. Different diseases, among them gallstones, cancer and infections, can block the bile ducts and cause a problem with the flow of bile. In Spanish the term is conducto biliar.

Spanish term: Conducto biliar
Gender and article: masculine: el conducto biliar (plural: los conductos biliares)
Pronunciation: kohn-DOOK-toh bee-LYAHR

Other Spanish terms	Where it is used	Note
vía biliar	General	Named as another term for conducto biliar at the end of the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary entry.
canal biliar	General	Also named as another term for conducto biliar in the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary entry.
ducto biliar	Americas	MedlinePlus en español prints this name only in the plural, ductos biliares, for the tubes that carry bile. The Spanish dictionary labels the word ducto as used in the Americas (Am.) and defines it as conducto.

Conducto biliar is the headword of the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary, which defines it as each of the tubes that carry bile inside the liver and out of it. Conducto is masculine: the same entry's captions write el conducto cístico and los conductos biliares hepáticos. The entry adds that a conducto biliar is also called canal biliar and vía biliar. MedlinePlus en español uses a different word, ductos biliares, and titles its page Enfermedades de los ductos biliares, with Enfermedades de las vías biliares under other names.

For the individual ducts, the NCI's Spanish captions use conducto hepático común (common hepatic duct), conducto cístico (cystic duct) and conducto colédoco (common bile duct). They call the two groups vías biliares intrahepáticas and vías biliares extrahepáticas. Related words in MedlinePlus en español are bilis (bile), vesícula biliar (gallbladder) and cálculos biliares (gallstones).

Phrases for an appointment

What a patient or a clinician might say, in English and Spanish:

Who	English	Spanish
Clinician	The ultrasound shows that a gallstone is blocking your bile duct.	La ecografía muestra que un cálculo biliar está bloqueando el conducto biliar.
Patient	Is that why my skin and eyes look yellow?	¿Por eso tengo la piel y los ojos amarillos?
Clinician	Have you had pain in the upper right part of your belly?	¿Ha tenido dolor en la parte superior derecha del abdomen?
Patient	Yes, the pain comes after I eat and lasts a few hours.	Sí, el dolor me da después de comer y dura unas horas.
Clinician	The bile ducts carry bile from the liver to the small intestine.	Los conductos biliares llevan la bilis desde el hígado hasta el intestino delgado.
Patient	What does "common bile duct" mean on my report?	¿Qué significa «conducto colédoco» en mi informe?
Clinician	We are going to order blood tests and another imaging test.	Vamos a pedirle análisis de sangre y otra prueba de imagen.
Patient	My urine is dark and my stools are pale.	Tengo la orina oscura y las heces de color claro.

In 9 languages

Language	Term
English	Bile Duct
Spanish (Español)	Conducto biliar
Chinese (中文)	膽管
Korean (한국어)	담관
Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)	Ống mật
Filipino (Tagalog)	Bile duct
Portuguese (Português)	Ducto biliar
Thai (ภาษาไทย)	ท่อน้ำดี
Japanese (日本語)	胆管

Where you'll see it

ERCP reportultrasound reportCT abdomen report

Related terms

Your right to an interpreter in the United States

If English is not your primary language and you have difficulty communicating in English, you may need an interpreter or a translated document when you visit a doctor or dentist, go to the emergency room or pick up a prescription. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights states that two federal laws, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, require programs that receive its funding to provide language access services free of charge.

You can ask when you make the appointment or at the front desk: "I need an interpreter, please." «Necesito un intérprete, por favor.»

More terms: Digestive system

All terms in this area: Digestive system — Sistema digestivo

Sources

This page is a language reference. It is not medical advice.