title: Acute alithiasic cholecystitis: a not so rare disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) occurs more frequently in critically ill patients, in the immediate postoperative period, after trauma or extensive burns. It has a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Ischemia, infection and vesicular stasis are determinants in its pathogenesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study including all cases of AAC diagnosed in our pediatric intensive care unit between January 1997 and December 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 7 patients, all associated with viral or bacterial infection. All of them suffered from abdominal pain, mainly localized in the right upper quadrant, jaundice and dark urine. Abdominal ultrasound showed thickening and hypervascularity of the gallbladder wall in all cases. The outcome was satisfactory without surgery in all patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The clinical presentation is oligosymptomatic within severe systemic diseases. The AAC should be suspected in the appearance of any abdominal pain with jaundice/dark urine and hypertransaminasemia in patients suffering from critical or serious infections.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blasco-Alonso
authors.forename: Eloísa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santiago-García-Caro
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gil-Gómez
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Alcántara
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Yáñez
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Milano-Manso
mesh_terms: D042101:Acalculous Cholecystitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D035583:Rare Diseases; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology