A Case of Double Gallbladder

Keidai Ishikawa, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Moto Takahashi, Kazuaki Hazama, Satoshi Kondo^* and Hiroyuki Kato^*

Department of Surgery, Shinnittetsu Muroran General Hospital^*, Department of Surgical Oncology, Hokkaido University, School of Medicine^*

A 67-year-old woman admitted for sudden right hypochondrial pain, was found in ultrasonography to have gallbladder stones and diagnosed with a double gallbladder with cholelithiasis distal gallbladder by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. It was classified as a H-type double gallbladder in the classification of Gross, necessitating laparoscopic cholecystectomy for the distal gallbladder with cholelithiasis. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on postoperative day 6. One year later, drip-infused cholangiography was conducted and 7 years later, magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography was done to evaluate the residual gallbladder. Neither showed abnormal change. Double gallbladder is a rare anomaly with only 65 cases, including ours, reported in the Japanese literature. Both gallbladders often have cholelithiasis. The distal gallbladder alone was associated with gallstones in our case, so laparoscopic cholecystectomy was conducted on this alone, with the residual gallbladder followed up. Gallbladder carcinoma found 3 such cases indicate a need to strictly follow up the condition of the residual gallbladder.

Key words
double gallbladder

Reprint requests
Keidai Ishikawa Department of Surgery, Shinnittetsu Muroran General Hospital 1-45 Chiribetsu-cho, Muroran, Hokkaido, 050-0076 JAPAN

Accepted
July 24, 2002

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