Ectopic liver (choristoma) associated with the gallbladder encountered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a case...

Ectopic liver has been but rarely described usually in the vicinity of liver such as on the gallbladder, hepatic ligaments, diaphragm, thoracic cavity, adrenal glands, pancreas, omentum, spleen, esophagus and umbilical cord. A simple classification for anomalous liver tissues found on the wall of gallbladder is 1. Accessory liver lobe 2. Ectopic nodule 3. Aberrant microscopic tissue. Ectopic nodules of liver tissue attached to the gallbladder are completely detached from the liver and has been described by various names such as accessory lobe, ectopic liver, accessory liver and heterotopic liver but the specific pathological term for this entity is choristoma introduced by Albert in 1904 meaning displacement. Several possible mechanisms may explain ectopic liver at various sites such as the development of an accessory lobe of the liver with atrophy or regression of the original connection to the main liver or migration of pars hepatica to the rudiment of various organs. In this paper we present a case of ectopic liver or choristoma attached to the gallbladder encountered during an elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy which was successfully removed with the gallbladder.