[Mechanism of production of porcelain gallbladder]

An observation is presented, of a case, of particular demonstrative value, of "porcelain gall-bladder", in which the authors were able to evidence the intervention of three local pathogenic factors: chronic inclavation of a stone in the bladder neck and obliteration of the cystic duct (which eliminated from the physiological viewpoint the gall-bladder); a chronic inflammation of the wall and ischaemia of the entire organ following the previous obliteration of the cystic artery. These factors are only in exceptional circumstances met in the same patient and this explains the rarity of this complication of biliary lithiasis.