Diagnosis and treatment of polypoid lesions of the gallbladder:report of 194 cases

BACKGROUND: With the wide use of B-ultrasonography in recent years, the polypoid lesion of the gallbladde ( PLG) has been one of the most common diseases detected in biliary surgery. This study was to investigate the diag nostic method and operative indications of PLG. METHODS: The clinical and pathological data of 194 pa tients with PLG who had received operation at our hospita from January 1994 to September 2002 were analyzed retro spectively. Categorized data were analyzed by the chi square test. RESULTS: All the patients received preoperative B-ultra- sonography. 185 of the 194 PLG patients were diagnosed as having cholecystic polyp, and 9 adenomas. Among the 42 patients who received CT, 6 showed early gallbladder can cer. Pathologically, cholesterol polyps were mostly multi ple lesions (64.7%) with a mean diameter of3.86±2.2 mm in 136 patients. Of 16 patients with adenomas, 10 had a tumor diameter of more than 10 mm (62.5%). In 11 pa tients with gallbladder carcinoma, 7 were accompanied with gallbladder stone (63.6%). In addition, inflammatory polyps and adenomyomas were found in 25 and 6 patients respectively. CONCLUSIONS: B-ultrasonography is the most effective diagnostic method for detecting PLG. When large or irreg- ular lesions are found, CT should be performed in order to avoid missing of gallbladder carcinoma. Operative indica- tions for PLG include; a maximal tumor diameter of more than 10 mm; an over 50-year-old patient with a wide-base and a single polyp lesion; a wide-base lesion or a lesion showing a tendency to enlargement; co-existing gallbladder stone or cholecystitis; a patient without other diseases but obvious clinical features and failure of general ma- nagement ; big or long pedicels or polyps at the neck of the gallbladder for preventing the empty of the gallbladder and a history of biliary colic; and PLG with irregularly thick- ened local gallbladder wall.

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF POLYPOID LESIONS OF THE GALLBLADDER

This article reports 56 pathologically confirmed cases of polypoid lesions of the gallbladder (PLG) that were operated on in our hospital from 1984 to 1995. The patients' ages ranged from 10 to 70 and the mean age was 43. 5, 83.9% were 30～49 years old. Gallstone could be round in 24cases. There were 36 cases of pseudotumor in this group (64.2% ), 20 of true tumor(35. 8% ) and 1of carcinopolypus. The diagnosis rate was elevated with the use or BUS. The patients with complicated gallstone and polyp in the neck of gallbladder should be operated early while asymptom patients could be followed and operated on at sultable stage.

Endoscopic ultrasonography does not differentiate neoplastic from non-neoplastic small gallbladder polyps

AIM： To assess the ability of endoscopic ultrasonography （EUS） to differentiate neoplastic from non- neoplastic polypoid lesions of the gallbladder （PLGs）.METHODS： The uses of EUS and transabdominal ultrasonography （US） were retrospectively analyzed in 94 surgical cases of gallbladder polyps less than 20 mm in diameter.RESULTS： The prevalence of neoplastic lesions with a diameter of 5-20 mm was 27.2% （10/58）; 22-15 mm, 25.4% （4/26）, and 16-20 mm, 50% （5/20）. The overall diagnostic accuracies of EUS and US for small PLGs were 80.9% and 63.9% （P 〈 0.05）, respectively. EUS correctly distinguished 12 （63.2%） of 19 neoplastic PLGs but was less accurate for polyps less than 1.0 cm （4/10, 40%） than for polyps greater than 1.0 cm （8/9, 88.9%） （P = 0.02）.CONCLUSION： Although EUS was more accurate than US, its accuracy for differentiating neoplastic from non-neoplastic PLGs less than 1.0 cm was low. Thus, EUS alone is not sufficient for determining a treatment strategy for PLGs of less than 1.0 cm.

PATHOLOGIC STUDY OF PRECANCEROUS LESION OF THE GALLBLADDER

Precancerous lesions of the gallbladder in 150 consecutive cholecystectomy specimens resected from the patients with cholelithiasis or cholecystitis were studied. Of these specimens, 80% had simple epithelial hyperplasia, 16% atypical hyperplasia, 1.3% carcinoma in situ and 2.7% invasive carcinoma. Atypical hyperplasia was observed in the mucosa abjacent to carcinoma in situ which, in turn, was found in the mucosa adjacent to invasive carcinoma. This finding suggests that some of simple hyperplasia of the gallbladder evolve towards atypical hyperplasia, carcinoma in situ which finally becomes invasive carcinoma. In addition, the authors provide a morphologic criteria for grading the atypical hyperplasia of the gallbladder.