Cystic node

At a glance

English

Cystic node

Latin (TA2)

Nodus cysticus

System

Lymphatic

Region

Trunk

Side

Single, on the midline

About the cystic node

The cystic node, also known as the node of Lund or Calot's node, is a single, usually large lymph node lying at the neck of the gallbladder. It sits where the neck narrows into the cystic duct, generally on the surface facing the liver, in the area bounded by the cystic duct, the common hepatic duct and the underside of the liver. The cystic artery often runs close by, passing to the gallbladder through the same triangle.

The gallbladder lies in a shallow fossa on the visceral surface of the right lobe of the liver and is covered in peritoneum. Its lymph vessels run in the wall and in the tissue between it and the liver, collecting towards the neck.

The cystic node receives most of the lymph from the gallbladder and from the cystic duct. Lymph leaving it passes to the hepatic nodes along the common hepatic artery and the bile duct, including the node at the epiploic foramen, and from there to the coeliac nodes.

Surgeons know this node well because it marks the area where the cystic duct and artery must be identified and divided during removal of the gallbladder. It is often enlarged and inflamed in acute cholecystitis, which can make that dissection harder. In cancer of the gallbladder it is one of the first nodes to which the disease spreads, and its state helps guide how much tissue is removed.

Course and drainage

Begins at

Afferent vessels from the wall of the gallbladder and the cystic duct.

Drains into

Efferent vessels pass to the hepatic nodes, including the foraminal node, and then to the coeliac nodes.

Drains

First filter for lymph from the gallbladder. A key surgical landmark in cholecystectomy, often enlarged in cholecystitis, and an early site of spread in gallbladder cancer.