A 55-year-old male with pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen was referred to our hospital for evaluation of gallstones. Pre-operative drip infusion cholangiographic computed tomography revealed a circular structure in the hilar bile duct. This biliary anomaly was diagnosed as a communicating accessory bile duct (CABD), and laparoscopic cholecystectomy preserving the CABD was performed to minimize unnecessary bile duct damage using intra-operative cholangiography. The patient was

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... arged from our ward with no complications. CABD is extremely rare, but many CABD cases are reported using different terminology, such as "double cystic duct," "double common hepatic duct," and "double biliary duct," suggesting that the frequency of CABD is higher than previously believed. A case of CABD is described, along with a review of the 37 previously reported cases from 2000 to 2014 in Japan and a short discussion.