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CASE REPORT
Spontaneous right hepatic artery branch gallbladder fistula revealed by haemobilia and upper cataclysmic gastrointestinal bleeding
  1. Sana Landolsi1,
  2. Manel Landolsi2,
  3. Saber Mannai1
  1. 1Department of Surgery, Universite de Tunis El Manar Faculte de Medecine de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
  2. 2Department of Radiology, Universite de Tunis El Manar Faculte de Medecine de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Manel Landolsi, landolsimanel{at}yahoo.fr

Summary

Spontaneous right hepatic artery branch gallbladder fistula is a rare condition. Our case reported a spontaneous fistula between the right branch of the hepatic artery and the gall bladder. It constitutes a rare cause of haemobilia. In fact, the most common aetiology of haemobilia is traumatic or iatrogenic secondary to hepatobiliary surgery or interventions. Diagnosis of vascular-biliary fistula is not easy. The gallbladder endoluminal clot can mimic a mass, as in our patient. Selective arterial angiography is helpful in identifying the source of gastrointestinal haemorrhage. It can demonstrate the presence of arteriobiliary fistula. The differential diagnosis is arterial pseudoaneurysm in the vicinity of the vessel. Mini-invasive treatment of this fistula constitutes the best treatment. We here report a case of haemobilia with upper cataclysmic gastrointestinal bleeding revealing a spontaneous fistula between the right branch of the hepatic artery and the gall bladder.

  • biliary intervention
  • Gi bleeding

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Footnotes

  • Contributors The corresponding author ML collected the data and wrote the manuscript. Author SL contributed to the writing of the manuscript and interpreted CT images. Coauthor SM contributed to the writing of the manuscript and performed literature review.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.