Management of polypoid lesions of the gall bladder

ABSTRACT

To analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with polypoidal lesions of gall bladder and to correlate the radiological and histopathological diagnosis. Descriptive study. At Hamdard University Hospital Karachi over a period of 9 years [July 1999- June 2008]. The study included all those patients who were operated for gall bladder polyps. Patients of both sexes above14 years of age diagnosed on the basis of ultrasound and underwent cholecystectomy were included in the study. Twenty eight patients were included in this study with male to female ratio of approximately 18. Mean age of patients was 47.5 years. Twenty five patients were having symptomatic gall bladder disease. On the basis of ultrasound 19 patients had solitary polyp while 9 had multiple lesions. All these patients were operated laparoscopically; only one patient had a conversion to open cholecystectomy. Out of total 28 patients 19 were histopathologically proven benign polyps, one patient had severely dysplastic polypoidal lesion while eight patients had chronic cholecystitis with prominent folds with or without gall stones. Of 19 patients with benign disease 15 had cholesterol polyps and remaining 4 had adenomas. Gall bladder polyps are important cause of symptomatic gall bladder disease with peak incidence in 4th to 5th decade. Most of the gall bladder polyps are benign with cholesterol polyps and adenomas being the commonest lesions found on histopathology. Ultrasonography is good diagnostic tool with reasonable accuracy