Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Mar 27, 2020; 12(3): 123-128
Published online Mar 27, 2020. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v12.i3.123
Isolated gallbladder tuberculosis mimicking acute cholecystitis: A case report
Kai Siang Chan, Vishal G Shelat, Cher Heng Tan, Yee Lin Tang, Sameer P Junnarkar
Kai Siang Chan, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 308232, Singapore
Vishal G Shelat, Sameer P Junnarkar, Department of General Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore 308433, Singapore
Cher Heng Tan, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore 308433, Singapore
Sameer P Junnarkar, Department of Pathology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore 308433, Singapore
Author contributions: Chan KS wrote the paper; Shelat VG and Junnarkar SP performed the operation, supervised the study and designed the study; Tan CH and Tang YL provided advice and guidance on radiological and histopathological findings respectively.
Informed consent statement: Consent has been taken from the patient for publication of findings in a journal.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sameer P Junnarkar, FRCS (Gen Surg), MBBS, MD, Doctor, Surgeon, Department of General Surgery, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore 308433, Singapore. sp_junnarkar@ttsh.com.sg
Received: October 14, 2019
Peer-review started: October 14, 2019
First decision: November 6, 2019
Revised: November 20, 2019
Accepted: December 14, 2019
Article in press: December 14, 2019
Published online: March 27, 2020
Processing time: 136 Days and 17.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Isolated tuberculosis of the gallbladder is extremely rare due to its intrinsic resistance to tuberculous infections. We present a rare case of isolated gallbladder tuberculosis presenting as acute cholecystitis. Clinical examination revealed positive Murphy’s sign. The patient underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy within the same admission. Histology shows necrotizing granulomatous inflammation with rare acid-fast bacilli which was identified on Ziehl-Neelsen stain. This case highlights the multivariable clinical presentations of gallbladder tuberculosis. Clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for patients in endemic regions presenting with cholecystitis to obtain a pre-operative diagnosis.