Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
cholecystitis

cholecystitis

1 9.3
Swelling and pain in the gallbladder, the organ under the liver that stores bile, often caused by gallstones or infection
  • noun
  • /ˌkoʊlɪsɪsˈtaɪtɪs/
  • Specialized
: colecistitis
  • The medical team monitored her condition closely because she was diagnosed with cholecystitis.
  • acute cholecystitis
  • eosinophilic cholecystitis
  • calculous cholecystitis

Examples

  • After experiencing severe pain, the doctor confirmed that he had cholecystitis due to gallstones.

  • Three patients had pain that was attributed to chronic pancreatitis (two) or cholecystitis (one); this was managed by elective cholecystectomy.

    Academic text (2000)

  • There is no specific clinical manifestation of this disease apart from cholecystitis, with histopathology being the sole basis for the diagnosis.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Eosinophilic cholecystitis is a rare entity encountered in cholecystectomy specimens.

    Academic text (2007)

  • In patients having cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis, postoperative antibiotics did not reduce infection.

    Academic text (2014)

  • One patient in the polyethylene-stem group developed cholecystitis, diagnosed because of a thickened gallbladder wall at ultrasound examination.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Laboratory investigation reveals peripheral eosinophilia in eosinophilic cholecystitis associated with systemic hypereosinophilic disorders.

    Academic text (2007)

  • We report a case of eosinophilic cholecystitis, diagnosed on histopathology of a patient presenting with acalculous cholecystitis with choledocholithiasis and cholecystoduodenal fistula.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The definitive treatment of eosinophilic cholecystitis is cholecystectomy. However, steroids may be used as an adjuvant in eosinophilic cholecystitis associated with eosinophilic gastroenteritis.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The etiology of eosinophilic cholecystitis is still obscure, and a local eosinophilic inflammatory reaction to gallstones or parasites has been postulated.

    Academic text (2007)

Surface Forms

cholecystitis singular
cholecystitides plural

Morphology

cholecystitis = cyst (opaque) = chole + cyst + itis

Built from Greek combining forms ('chole-' + 'cyst-') plus the medical suffix '-itis'; these elements are not transparent to an average B1 learner without medical knowledge.

Etymology

Cholecystitis breaks into the parts chole- 'bile', -cyst- 'bladder', and -itis 'inflammation'. So cholecystitis literally means 'inflammation of the gallbladder', which explains the painful, swollen gallbladder often caused by gallstones or infection and you can remember -itis from words like 'appendicitis' that also mean 'inflammation'.