Case Report


Ischemic cholecystitis masquerading as a metastatic disease secondary to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization

,  ,  

1 Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

2 School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

3 Division of Transplant Surgery at University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Address correspondence to:

Shareef Syed

505 Parnassus Avenue, #M884C, San Francisco, CA 94117,

USA

Message to Corresponding Author


Article ID: 100087Z11SK2025

doi: 10.5348/100087Z11SK2025CR

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How to cite this article

Khan S, Arammash M, Syed S. Ischemic cholecystitis masquerading as a metastatic disease secondary to transcatheter arterial chemoembolization. J Case Rep Images Pathol 2025;11(1):18–21.

ABSTRACT


Introduction: While difficult to diagnose, the accurate and timely identification of gallbladder metastasis secondary to hepatocellular carcinoma is necessary for appropriate patient care. Ischemic cholecystitis is a frequently documented complication of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma, which can resemble gallbladder metastasis.

Case Report: We present the case of a 53-year-old male patient with a history of compensated cirrhosis secondary to hepatitis C and right lobe hepatocellular carcinoma. The patient underwent partial hepatectomy of segment 5/6 and cholecystectomy post-TACE with intraoperative diagnosis suggesting possible gallbladder metastasis.

Conclusion: We describe the clinicopathological findings of ischemic cholecystitis masquerading as gallbladder metastasis and highlight the importance of perioperative histopathological finding to confirm the diagnosis and to differentiate the complications of TACE.

Keywords: Gallbladder metastasis, Ischemic cholecystitis, Transarterial chemoembolization

SUPPORTING INFORMATION


Author Contributions

Saleha Khan - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Mohammad Arammash - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Shareef Syed - Substantial contributions to conception and design, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Interpretation of data, Drafting the article, Revising it critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published

Guarantor of Submission

The corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.

Source of Support

None

Consent Statement

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Conflict of Interest

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

Copyright

© 2025 Saleha Khan et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.