Sonographic diagnosis of traumatic gallbladder rupture

Gallbladder injuries after blunt abdominal trauma are rare and often follow a vague and insidious clinical course. Consequently, gallbladder injuries commonly go undiagnosed until exploratory laparotomy. Early diagnosis is essential, because trauma to the gallbladder is typically treated surgically, and delay in treatment can result in considerable mortality and morbidity. With sonography emerging as a first-line modality for evaluation of intra-abdominal trauma, sonographers may wish to become more familiar with the appearance of gallbladder injury on sonography to facilitate earlier diagnosis and to improve treatment and prognosis. We report a case of gallbladder perforation after blunt abdominal trauma diagnosed on the basis of computed tomography (CT) and sonography.