Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Surgery
Volume 2013, Article ID 263046, 3 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/263046
Case Report
A Case of Concomitant Perforated Acute
Cholecystitis and Pancreatitis
Marlon Perera, Toan Pham, Sumeet Toshniwal,
Yasmin Lennie, Steven Chan, and Nezor Houli
Department of Surgery, Western Health, Footscray, Melbourne, VIC 3012, Australia
Correspondence should be addressed to Marlon Perera; marlonlperera@gmail.com
Received 29 May 2013; Accepted 2 July 2013
Academic Editors: N. A. Chowdri, R. Hasan, M. L. Quek, and Y. Rino
Copyright © 2013 Marlon Perera et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Introduction. Concomitant cholecystitis and gallstone pancreatitis is an infrequent clinical encounter, reported sparsely in the
literature. Concurrent acute cholecystitis and pancreatitis complicated by gall bladder perforation has not been reported before.
Presentation of Case. We report a 39-year-old female presenting with concomitant cholecystitis and acute pancreatitis, complicated
by gallbladder perforation. Discussion. Tere is much controversy surrounding the timing of cholecystectomy following gallstone
pancreatitis, with the recent literature suggesting that “early” operation is safe. In the current case, gallbladder perforation altered
the “routine” management of gallstone pancreatitis and posed as a management dilemma. Conclusion. Clinical judgement dictated
timing of operative management and ultimately cholecystectomy was performed safely.
1. Case Report
A 39-year-old female, previously well, was admitted with a
diagnosis of acute pancreatitis with concurrent acute calculus
cholecystitis. Te patient presented with a one-day history
of acute onset sharp pain in the epigastrium, associated with
nausea and vomiting. She was exquisitely tender in the epigas-
trium and right upper quadrant, with no peritoneal signs on
examination. Laboratory investigations showed a white cell
count of 14.2 × 10
6
/L, with 81% neutrophils, 28 U/L biliru-
bin, 237 U/L ALT, 192 U/L AST, 145 U/L ALP 171 U/L GGT,
lipase 1445 U/L, and LDH 630 U/L, and serum glucose was
7.9mmoL/L. Te patient was classed as grade 1 pancreatitis
using Ranson’s criteria [1]. Biliary ultrasound on admission
showed acute cholecystitis, with gallbladder wall thickness of
5 mm and multiple calculi, the largest at 6 mm and no evi-
dence of biliary tree dilation.
Te patient was initially managed with empiric parental
antibiotics; cefriaxone 1 g daily and metronidazole 500 mg 8
hourly. On day 2 of admission, liver function became increas-
ingly deranged, with bilirubin increasing to 77 U/L. Te
patient complained of acute exacerbation of pain and repeat
sonography showed worsening cholecystitis with a high
suspicion of a small gallbladder posterior wall perforation,
associated with an increase of pericholecystic fuid collection
(Figure 1). Computerized tomography (CT) of the abdomen
and Pelvis showed large amounts of free fuid within the
gallbladder fossa, confrming gallbladder perforation. Tere
was marked fat stranding in the upper abdomen surrounding
the pancreas and extensive free fuid in the perihepatic region
and perisplenic region, upper abdomen, iliac fossae and
Pouch of Douglas (Figure 2).
Te patient underwent a semielective laparoscopic chole-
cystectomy. Intraoperatively, the diagnosis of perforated
necrotic cholecystitis was confrmed with 600 mls of bilious
free fuid within the peritoneum (Figure 3). Intra-operative
cholangiogram was otherwise unremarkable, though a prom-
inent pancreatic duct was noted. Tere was no obvious com-
mon bile duct obstruction. Te patient improved clinically
over the postoperative period with rapid improvement in
infammatory markers, enabling the patient to be discharged
three days postoperatively.
2. Discussion
Concomitant acute cholecystitis and gallstone pancreatitis is
common clinical constellation that has been documented in
the literature. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no such