PRIMARY GALLBLADDER CARCINOMA

Abstract

To evaluate the general characteristics and treatment results of gallbladder carcinoma, we reviewed the records of 48 patients operated far gallbladder carcinoma in our institute between 1980-1994. Majority of the patients had abdominal pain (85.4%) and 39.6% had jaundice; 31.3% was symptomatic for more than 1 year. Only 16.8% of the patients were diagnosed definitely to have gallbladder carcinoma preoperatively and all had stage IV disease. According to TNM classification more than half of the patients had stage IV disease at the time of diagnosis. Simple cholecystectomy was performed in 31.3%, cholecystectomy with liver wedge resection and regional lymph node dissection (radical cholecystectomy) was performed in 10.4%, simple cholecystectomy and bilioenteric bypass was performed in 12.5% of the patients, The rest of them underwent a palliative procedure without cholecystectomy or biopsy alone (45.8%). In this study resectability was 27.1 %. Mean survival of patients who had resectable tumors and underwent appropriate surgical treatment was 36.6 months, it was 35.5 months for patients who did not have appropriate surgical treatment. Patients with unresectable lesions had a mean survival time of 14.8 months. Carcinoma of the gallbladder continues to be a diagnostic problem and the majority of the patients have unresectable tumors at the time of diagnosis. Only solution seems to be operating patients known to have any gallbladder patology immediately after diagnosis.