Distinguishing Between Gangrenous Cholecystitis and Ascending Cholangitis: A Case Study.

Gangrenous cholecystitis is a potentially fatal complication of acute cholecystitis that presents with right upper quadrant pain and sepsis. Due to the overlap in clinical features with ascending cholangitis, gangrenous cholecystitis can be easily misdiagnosed, resulting in treatment delay. While the gold standard of diagnosis of gangrenous cholecystitis is direct visualization during surgery and tissue sampling to pathology, some imaging features can guide the diagnosis to appropriate early surgical treatment of gangrenous cholecystitis.