[Acute retrosternal pain]

Abstract

A 52 year old patient was admitted for retrosternal pain not responding to nitroglycerin. Two years before he had suffered myocardial infarction. He had known cholecystolithiasis. Reinfarction was excluded, but the patient developed right upper quadrant abdominal pain with rebound tenderness, fever and leukocytosis. Abdominal sonography supported the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis. Acute illness resolved rapidly without complications under treatment with antibiotics. The patient underwent cholecystectomy during the free interval four weeks after discharge from the hospital. Intraoperative diagnosis was empyema of the gallbladder with cholecystolithiasis.