also called the main pancreatic duct (MPD) forms within the dorsal pancreatic bud, present in the body and tail of the pancreas.Named after Johann Georg Wirsung (1589 - 1643) a German physician who worked as a prosector in Padua and discovered the duct in a cadaver in 1642. Note an accessory pancreatic duct (APD, also called Santorini’s duct) may be present as an anatomical variation due to the embryological origin of the pancreas from two pancreatic buds (dorsal and ventral).