Suprahepatic gallbladder with hypoplasia of the right lobe of the liver

Abstract

One of the rarest congenital anomalies of the gallbladder is the suprahepatic variant of this organ. Three cases of this ectopia were seen in a ten-year period, all of which associated with hypoplasia of the right lobe of the liver and upward displacement of the hepatic flexure of the colon, which overlapped the liver border. All patients complained of recurrent pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, suggestive of biliary disease, but only one case had calculi in the gallbladder that was acute cholecystitis. Two patients underwent cholecystectomy, and operative findings confirmed the preoperative diagnosis. It is speculated that the primary defect in this modality of suprahepatic gallbladder might be hypoplasia or atrophy of the right lobe of the liver of a congenital nature, with subsequent vicious orientation of the gallbladder and upward displacement of the colon.