Pancreatic Disorders & Therapy
Open Access

Pancreas Divisum

Pancreas divisum is a common congenital anomaly (an anomaly that is present at birth) of the pancreatic duct, the human embryo starts life with a pancreas that is in two parts, each with its own duct; the ventral duct and the dorsal duct. The two parts of the pancreas fuse during development. In most embryos, the dorsal and the ventral ducts also will fuse to form one main pancreatic duct. The main pancreatic duct will join the common bile duct (the duct that drains bile from the gallbladder and the liver to form common bile and pancreatic duct which drains into the duodenum through the major papilla. In some embryos, the dorsal and the ventral ducts fail to fuse. Failure of the ventral and the dorsal pancreatic ducts to fuse is called pancreas divisum (because the pancreas is drained by two ducts). In pancreas divisum, the ventral duct drains into the major papilla, while the dorsal duct drains into a separate minor papilla.