Imaging of Acute Hepatobiliary Dysfunction

Abdominal pain is a common cause for emergency department visits in the United States, and biliary tract disease is the fifth most common cause of hospital admission. Common causes of acute hepatobiliary include gallstones and its associated complications and multiple other hepatobiliary etiologies, including infectious, inflammatory, vascular, and neoplastic causes. Postoperative complications of the biliary tract can result in an acute abdomen. Imaging of the hepatobiliary tree is integral in the diagnostic evaluation of acute hepatobiliary dysfunction, and imaging of the biliary tree requires a multimodality approach utilizing ultrasound, computed tomography, nuclear medicine, and MR imaging.