Porcelain Gallbladder In 83-Year-Old

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The New England Journal of Medicine
  • Porcelain gallbladder is a condition in which the inner gallbladder wall is encrusted with calcium.
  • The wall often takes on a bluish hue, moreover, becomes brittle and hard.
  • Most patients with porcelain gallbladder are asymptomatic and it is usually an incidental finding on routine examinations, such as, a plain abdominal x-rays or other imaging.
  • Other names for porcelain gallbladder are calcified gallbladder, calcifying cholecystitis, and cholecystopathia chronica calcarea [2].

An 83-year-old woman receiving antibiotic treatment for cellulitis presented to the outpatient clinic with complaint of nausea. The patient had also shown improvement over the course of the antibiotic treatment. Her medical history revealed an episode of biliary colic at the age of 40.

There were no abnormal findings on physical and abdominal examination. For further evaluation, a plain radiograph of the abdomen was performed which showed a calcified gallbladder (Panel A). In addition, a computed tomography of the abdomen showed multiple calcified gallstones, including calcification of the gallbladder (Panel B). The findings were consistent with the diagnosis of porcelain gallbladder.

Porcelain gallbladder

Porcelain gallbladder refers to calcification of the gallbladder wall associated with chronic gallbladder inflammation. However, the treatment of asymptomatic patients with prophylactic cholecystectomy has not been established, even though, the condition predisposes to the risk of developing gallbladder cancer.

The patient’s nausea resolved without any further intervention and could have been caused by the antibiotic treatment. In addition to this, the patient’s condition was conveniently managed without surgery because of no ongoing symptoms of gallbladder disease. After the diagnosis, the 83-year-old regularly attended clinic follow-ups and complained of no abdominal symptoms or further episodes of biliary colic.

References

  1. Morimoto, M., & Mori, N. (2020). A Calcified Gallbladder. New England Journal of Medicine383(14), e86.
  2. Jones, M. W., Weir, C. B., & Ferguson, T. (2019). Porcelain Gallbladder. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.
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Dr. Aiman Shahab is a dentist with a bachelor’s degree from Dow University of Health Sciences. She is an experienced freelance writer with a demonstrated history of working in the health industry. Skilled in general dentistry, she is currently working as an associate dentist at a private dental clinic in Karachi, freelance content writer and as a part time science instructor with Little Medical School. She has also been an ambassador for PDC in the past from the year 2016 – 2018, and her responsibilities included acting as a representative and volunteer for PDC with an intention to make the dental community of Pakistan more connected and to work for benefiting the underprivileged. When she’s not working, you’ll either find her reading or aimlessly walking around for the sake of exploring. Her future plans include getting a master’s degree in maxillofacial and oral surgery, settled in a metropolitan city of North America.

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