Gallbladder Agenesia

Abstract

Gallbladder agenesis (GA) is a rare congenital entity. Most patients remain asymptomatic, while those with symptoms report symptoms that mimic bile colic. Initial evaluation for suspected gallbladder pathology, such as ultrasound of the right upper quadrant, May be misleading or inconclusive. As a result, some patients are eventually diagnosed intra-operatively. Therefore, GA should be maintained as a differential diagnosis and should be performed as magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRI) when other tests are inconclusive.

We present a 39-year-old woman who has chronic symptoms compatible with biliary colic and an equivocal ultrasound reported as scleroatrofic with cholelithiasis.
Laparoscopy was performed during which the absence of gallbladder was found. Postoperative CPRM confirmed the diagnosis of GA.