Can acute cholangitis occur without a gall stone?

[scilearner]

Hello everyone,

Charcot's triad is there to describe the clinical features of acute cholangitis. They are

1.Fever

2. Right upper quadrant pain

3. Jaundice

2 and 3 in charcot's triad is confusing to me. As I want to know if they occur due to cholangitis (infection) or due to gall stone obstructing common bile duct and then getting infected causing cholangitis. Is this charcot's triad made assuming that a gall stone causes cholangitis, or even without a stone would 3 features mentioned in Charcot's triad occur in acute cholangitis.

Thanks

[Xalatan]

there can be other causes of acute cholangitis outside of gall stones, as long as the pathology leads to biliary duct obstruction - benign strictures, cholangiocarcinomas, CA pancreas etc. so I think charcots triad describes the typical symptoms of all cholangitides, not just from gall stone aetiologically.