BACKGROUND Gallbladder cancer is a rare cancer with unusual distribution, and few population-based estimates for the United States have been published. METHODS Using population-based cancer incidence and mortality data, we examined U.S. gallbladder cancer incidence and death rates for 2007-2011 and trends for 1999-2011. RESULTS During 2007 to 2011, approximately 3,700 persons were diagnosed...

Gallbladder torsion is a rare clinical entity and it is a difficult condition to diagnose preoperatively. About 500 cases of gallbladder torsion have been reported since 1898, when Wendel first described gallbladder volvulus. This condition most commonly occurs in elderly women and the symptoms of this disease are largely non-specific and they mimic those of acute cholecystitis. Even with the r...

BACKGROUND Primary carcinoid tumor of the gallbladder is rare and comprises less than 1% of all carcinoid tumors. Preoperative diagnosis of carcinoid tumor of the gallbladder is difficult. The imageology findings are similar to those in other gallbladder cancers. CASE PRESENTATION A 46-year-old woman was hospitalized with a preoperative diagnosis of gallbladder carcinoma, The patient was refe...

BACKGROUND Metaplastic features of the gallbladder epithelium are considered to be the precursors of gallbladder cancer. Considering the possible role of chronic inflammatory changes in the development of these lesions and the rationale for performing an early prophylactic cholecystectomy, we performed a retrospective study to assess the prevalence of gallbladder metaplasia in patients who unde...

INTRODUCTION Morphology of gallbladder varies considerably from person to person. We believe that one of the morphological variations of gallbladder is the "gallbladder angle". Gallbladder varies also in "angle", which, to the best of our knowledge, has never been investigated before. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of gallbladder angle on gallstone formation. METHODS ...

Congenital absence of the gallbladder is an extremely rare embryological aberration that is frequently mistaken for cholecystolithiasis; the aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic methods for agenesis of the gallbladder. Two surgically confirmed gallbladder agenesis cases in our hospital and 75 cases of gallbladder agenesis reported in the literature in China were reviewed. It is ex...

CONTEXT This is the first report associating heterotopic pancreas in the gallbladder and elevated pancreatic enzymes in bile. CASE REPORT A 60-year-old woman underwent abdominal ultrasonography at a medical check-up, revealing a nodular protrusion at the neck of the gallbladder. It seemed likely to be a lymph node, but we could not exclude the possibility of gallbladder cancer. In order to ma...

The congenital absence of the gallbladder (CAG) is a rare condition with an incidence of 13-65 cases/ 100,000 in the general population. This occurs when the gallbladder and the cystic duct fail to bud from the common bile duct during the fifth week of gestation. Most commonly, the patients with congenital absence of the gallbladder are asymptomatic. When symptomatic, they present as biliary co...

Histamine is an inflammatory mediator present in mast cells, which are abundant in the wall of the gallbladder. We examined the electrical properties of gallbladder smooth muscle and nerve associated with histamine-induced changes in gallbladder tone. Recordings were made from gallbladder smooth muscle and neurons, and responses to histamine and receptor subtype-specific compounds were tested. ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Studies in adults suggest that constipation may not be a purely colonic pathology and may be a component of a generalized gastrointestinal (GI) motor disorder in which proximal GI motility can be impaired. Pediatric data are scarce, and the natural history of the disorder remains undefined. We aimed to evaluate gallbladder motility in a subset of Asian children with chronic func...