Question

 30 year-old male with abdominal pain and diffuse tenderness on exam. Ultrasound is shown, what's the diagnosis?

Answer

Free intra-abdominal fluid.

• The patient had ascites in this case, with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis; this was initially thought to be pericholecystic fluid secondary to acute cholecystitis.
• Another mimic of acute cholecystitis includes conditions with gallbladder wall thickening such as a contracted GB (e.g, post-prandial) or GB wall edema from fluid overload (e.g., CHF, renal failure, etc.)

References

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