Acalculous cholecystitis by P. falciparum in a 3-year-old child.

Acute cholecystitis involves inflammation of the gallbladder and can be seen with cholelithiasis (calculous) or in the absence of gallstones (acalculous). Acute acalculous cholecystitis (ACC) is rare, but important cause of cholecystitis in pediatrics. It is estimated that in children, 30–50% of cholecystitis cases are acalculous, compared with 2 to 17% of cases in adult patients. In children ACC mainly result from antecedent bacteremia and localization of bacteria in the gallbladder. So the majority cases have been managed by medical treatment alone. Gastrointestinal manifestations are common in malaria, but the ACC is extremely a rare manifestation of malaria and a very few cases have been reported previously. Here we report a case of ACC attributed to severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection in a 3-year old child.