Abdominal wall nodule in a cholecystectomy scar : A rare marker of occult carcinoma gallbladder

Pol Przegl Chir. 2019 Feb 7;91(2):16-19. doi: 10.5604/01.3001.0012.8557.

Abstract

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is a rare pathology. We reviewed our hospital database for prognosticating the patients with post-cholecystectomy abdominal wall nodule. On reviewing the database we could find 7 patients who were diagnosed with GBC after simple cholecystectomy. Three of those patients were diagnosed after evaluation of a scar site nodule. Two patients were females and one patient was male. The mean age of the patients was 55 years. Two patients underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy and one patient underwent open cholecystectomy. The average time of detection of malignancy was 10.6 months. The gallbladder was not subjected to histopathological examination in all three patients. The patients had the unresectable disease on restaging workup. Two patients had adenocarcinoma while one patient had a neuroendocrine tumor. abdominal wall nodule is a rare marker of occult gallbladder carcinoma. Subjecting every gallbladder specimen to histopathology should help in improving the survival in these patients.

Keywords: abdominal wall nodule; gallbladder cancer; port site metastasis.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Abdominal Wall / physiopathology*
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Carcinoma / etiology*
  • Carcinoma / physiopathology
  • Carcinoma / surgery*
  • Cholecystectomy / adverse effects*
  • Cicatrix / physiopathology*
  • Female
  • Gallbladder Neoplasms / etiology*
  • Gallbladder Neoplasms / physiopathology
  • Gallbladder Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Metastasis / physiopathology
  • Treatment Outcome