EMPYEMA GALL BLADDER - FORGOTTEN OR AN UNDER-REPORTED ENTITY

Twelve patients with empyema of the gall bladder were diagnosed among 325 cases of gall-bladder disease presenting to our department of surgery in three years period (March 2010 to March 2013). Abdominal pain was present for average of eight days in four cases andin four cases, for between one and four months. In some cases, the disease was painless and was found unexpectedly at operation for chromic cholecystitis disease. The severity of the problem was subdued by the often scanty physical signs. Less than 50% the patients had pyrexia of more than 38.5C and the presence of sepsis was rarely suspected clinically. None of the patients died. This considerable morbidity could be reduced by the wider use of blood culture in cases of cholecystitis and by greater awareness that empyema of the gallbladder is sometimes chronic, painless, and afebrile.