Hepatobiliary Pathology: Cholelithiasis: Acute Cholecystitis with Perforation

A 1912 autopsy specimen from a 56 year old man admitted, under Mr Arbuthnott Lane, for acute pain in the right side of the abdomen of 24 hours' duration. On admission he was in a collapsed state. An exploratory laparotomy was performed and the peritoneal cavity was found to contain a large quantity of blood clot, the source of which was obscure. He died soon afterwards. At autopsy the haemorrhage was found to have come from a perforation in the wall of the gall bladder which was covered by a mass of adherent clot.