Courvoisier's law

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Courvoisier’s law (or Courvoisier syndrome, or Courvoisier’s sign) states that in the presence of a palpable gall bladder, jaundice is unlikely to be caused by gallstones. This is because gallstones are formed over a longer period of time, and this results in a shrunken, fibrotic gall bladder which does not distend easily. Therefore the gall bladder is more often enlarged in pathologies that cause obstruction of the biliary tree over a shorter period of time such as pancreatic malignancy.^[1]

It is named for Ludwig Georg Courvoisier.^[2]

(Images courtesy of Charlie Goldberg, M.D., UCSD School of Medicine and VA Medical Center, San Diego, California)