Nonfunctioning paraganglioma of the liver, gallbladder and common bile duct

Paragangliomas are rare extra-adrenal neoplasms of neural crest origin. Although most of these lesions are of retroperitoneal origin, paragangliomas have been reported at a host of remote sites, including the urinary bladder, larynx, orbit and lung. In our review of the literature, we discovered only solitary case reports of such neoplasms involving the gallbladder and hepatic duct. We report a case of paraganglioma simultaneously involving the liver, gallbladder and common bile duct, as well as celiac and portal lymph nodes. Our findings add paraganglioma to the list of differential diagnoses for hypervascular portacaval space lesions. Furthermore, the radiographic appearance of this unusual tumor may be sufficiently distinctive to suggest the correct histologic diagnosis preoperatively.