Abstract

Objective: To find out the frequency of carcinoma gall bladder in patients of cholelithiasis undergoing cholecystectomy at Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi.
Study Design: Case series
Setting: Department of surgery, Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi from 13th of March 2008 to 13th of Aug 2008.
Patients & Methods: 100 consecutive cases of cholelithiasis confirmed on ultrasound who underwent cholecystectomy were included in the study by convenience (non-probability) sampling. All cholecystectomy specimens were sent for histopathology reporting at AFIP. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS statistical package version 10.0. Frequency tables were generated using age, sex and diagnosis as variables.
Results: There were 25 (25%) male and 75 (75%) female patients. The age of the patients ranged from 25 to 80 years. Overall mean age was 47.71 years and Standard Deviation was 9.91. Mean age for females was 47.82 and Standard Deviation was 9.15. Mean age for males was 46.56 and Standard Deviation was 9.48. Out of 100 patients, 2 were found to have carcinoma gallbladder on histopathology which came out to be 2 % on calculation. Both the patients found to have carcinoma were females, 2 out of total 75 females (frequency of 2.7%). The 2 females diagnosed to have carcinoma gallbladder on histopathology were 45 and 80 year old. No case of carcinoma gallbladder was found in the 25 males in this study (frequency of 0%).
Conclusion: The association between Gallbladder carcinoma and gallstones is a known fact. Therefore all the gallbladder specimens should be carefully inspected and should be subjected to histopathological evaluation.

Key words: Cholelithiasis, carcinoma gallbladder, gallstones, malignancy.