Gallbladder & extrahepatic bile ducts
Gallbladder nonneoplastic
Hydrops / mucocele
Author: Hanni Gulwani, M.B.B.S.
Last author update: 1 September 2012
Last staff update: 30 December 2020
Copyright: 2003-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Hydrops mucocele
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) descriptionCite this page: Gulwani H. Hydrops / mucocele. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/gallbladderhydrops.html. Accessed April 19th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Distended gallbladder containing clear and watery (hydrops) or mucoid secretions (mucocele), instead of bile
- Adult cases almost always due to impacted stones in ampulla or cystic duct
- Rarely due to regional tumors causing compression
- Pediatric cases associated with Kawasaki syndrome or other inflammatory narrowing of cystic duct
- Mucoceles that perforate may cause pseudomyxoma peritonei
Case reports
- 24 year old man with right upper quadrant pain with a palpable mass (Prilozi 2011;32:207)
- 31 year old woman with 10 year history of mild, episodic abdominal pain (N Engl J Med 2011;364:e43)
- Massive hydrops mimicking a choledochal cyst (J Pediatr Surg 2011;46:1015)
Gross description
- Thickened gallbladder wall
Microscopic (histologic) description
Adults:
Children:
- Fibrous replacement of muscular wall
- Rarely muciphages simulating signet ring cell adenocarcinoma
Children:
- Thin wall with flattened epithelium and sparse inflammation
