Intrahepatic cholesterol stones : report of two cases

Hepatolithiasis is rare in western countries, but is fairly common in East Asia, including Japan, China, and Taiwan. Calcium bilirubinate stones account for the majority of intrahepatic calculi while intrahepatic cholesterol stones are very rare, the incidence being 0.37% of all gallstones. However, several investigators have recently reported an increased incidences of cholesterol gallstones in hepatolithiasis cases and have discussed the differing mechanisms for their formation in the intrahepatic biliary tree of patients with calcium bilirubinate stones and cholesterol stones. We report two cases of intrahepatic cholesterol stone, with emphasis on the radiologic findings, and review the literature