A CASE OF TORSION OF THE GALLBLADDER DIAGNOSED PRIOR TO SURGERY

Abstract

A 72-year-old male with a chief complaint of right hypogastric pain was diagnosed as having torsion of the gallbladder by abdominal ultrasonography prior ot surgery and successfully treated by an emegency operation. Abdominal ultrasonography provided characteristic findings of torsion of the gallbladder such as 1) pronounced swelling of the gallbladder, 2) circumscribed thickening of the gallbladder wall, 3) displacement of the gallbladder, 4) free internal gallbladder echo and 5) a volvulated gallbladder neck delineated at a high echo level. It is anticipated that abdominal ultrasonography will yield an increasing number of preoperatively diagnosed cases of gallbladder torsion if the possibility of this disease is taken into account in the diagnosis of patients with abdominal pain.