Routine histopathological examination of gallbladder specimens after cholecystectomy: Is it time to change the current practice?

Abstract

Objective: Routine histopathological examination of all gallbladder specimens, regardless of the clinical characteristics of the patient or macroscopic aspect of the gallbladder, is the current approach to detect the presence of gallbladder carcinoma. The aim of the present study was to assess whether or not it would be safe to adopt a policy of processing only gallbladder specimens with preoperative or intraoperative suspicion for malignancy without compromising patient safety.

Material and Methods: From January 2009 to June 2017, all histopathology reports of 3423 consecutive gallbladder specimens after elective and emergency cholecystectomies were retrospectively analyzed in two university hospitals.

Results: A total of 3423 gallbladder specimens submitted for histopathological examination during the study period were included into the study. The results of histopathological examination of these gallbladder specimens showed that chronic cholecystitis was found in 2792 (81.6%), acute cholecystitis in 237 (6.9%), and cholesterolosis in 223 (6.5%) patients. Dysplasia was found in 5 (0.14%) patients, and gallbladder carcinoma was detected in 4 (0.11%) patients. All patients with gallbladder carcinoma were diagnosed either preoperatively or intraoperatively, and none of the patients with gallbladder carcinoma were diagnosed from the histopathological examination.

Conclusion: A strategy of selective approach for histopathological examination of gallbladder specimens may be safe in areas with very low incidence of gallbladder carcinoma. Such selective strategy is more cost-effective, reduces the workload of pathologists, and does not appear to compromise patient outcome.

Cite this paper as: Benkhadoura M, Elshaikhy A, Eldruki S, Elfaedy O. Routine histopathological examination of gallbladder specimens after cholecystectomy: Is it time to change the current practice?. Turk J Surg 2018; 10.5152/turkjsurg.2018.4126.

Authors declared that the research was conducted according to the principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki “Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects”.

Informed consent was not received due to the retrospective nature of the study.

Externally peer-reviewed.

Concept - M.B., A.E.; Design - M.B., S.E., O.E.; Supervision - M.B., O.E.; Resource - M.B., A.E., S.E., O.E.; Materials - A.E., S.E.; Data Collection and/or Processing - A.E., S.E.; Analysis and/or Interpre- tation - M.B., A.E., O.E.; Literature Search - M.B., O.E.; Writing Manuscript - M.B., O.E.; Critical Reviews - M.B., A.E., S.E., O.E.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.