The gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts play host to a surprisingly large number of benign tumours and tumour-like lesions which may be visible on imaging. In the gallbladder, most of them are detected incidentally, whereas in the bile ducts they are usually found in symptomatic patients (obstructive jaundice) 2. These lesions include 1:
- epithelial tumours
- mural tumours
- neurogenic tumours
- tumour-like masses
- heterotrophic gastric or pancreatic tissue
- cholesterol polyp of the gallbladder: most common
- inflammatory polyp of the gallbladder
- xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis
- adenomyomatosis
- primary sclerosing cholangitis