A Thesis submitted to The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine. / Many patients present with upper abdominal pain and receive some type of pain relieving therapy prior to gallbladder imaging. The physiologic effect of morphine and other analgesics on gallbladder function has been well‐studied. What hasn’t been studied as much are the implications on clinical practice and the decision about whether morphine is the best option to use in suspected chronic gallbladder disease. This case study serves to illustrate the influence of morphine in a patient who underwent both inpatient and outpatient hepatobiliary scintigraphy with dramatically different results. This case study perfectly shows the considerations that must be taken when using morphine because it eliminates many confounding variables; the only difference in the patient at the time of initial and subsequent presentation was the presence of morphine.