ABSTRACT
Congenital absence of the gall bladder is a rare anomaly which may occur alone or with other malformations with incidence ranging from 0.01-0.05%. Awareness of this entity by clinicians and radiologists is essential because many of these patients present with biliary symptoms and have unnecessary operations. This presentation, coupled with the inability of standard abdominal ultrasonography to convincingly diagnose agenesis of the gallbladder, can put the surgeon in a diagnostic and intraoperative dilemma. Here we report a suspected case of chronic cholecystitis who underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy and was found to have a congenital absence of gall bladder and cystic duct. Standard pre-operative investigative modalities which were fallacious and misleading. The embryological basis and clinical significance have been discussed.