Introduction:

Approximately 5% of duodenal diverticula can cause symptoms and 1% have complications, cholangitis being the most common. Lemmel syndrome corresponds to a type of intermittent obstructive jaundice, associated with the presence of peri-ampullary diverticula and sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, without choledocholithiasis.

Method:

A systematic review of the literature was carried out in Pubmed, Google Scholar, ProQuest, with the terms: Lemmel syndrome, symptomatic duodenal diverticulum, and intermittent obstructive jaundice.

Results:

38 cases were found, Spain being the country with the highest number, followed by Mexico, Japan and Colombia. There are no differences in distribution with respect to gender. The most frequently used treatment was endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Conclusion:

Lemmel syndrome is a rare disease, without a specific clinical presentation, with an increase in reported cases in recent years possibly due to the better availability of diagnostic methods. It is more frequent in patients in the eighth decade of life and its treatment is generally endoscopic.

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