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CARCINOMA OF THE GALL‐BLADDER
Author(s) -
Bennett R. C.,
Jepson R. P.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1965.tb04375.x
Subject(s) - medicine , gall , cholecystectomy , incidence (geometry) , surgery , disease , carcinoma , general surgery , botany , physics , optics , biology
S ummary Fifty‐six cases of carcinoma of the gall‐bladder occurring in two Adelaide teaching hospitals over a five‐year period have been reviewed. Eighty‐four per cent. of patients were over the age of 60 years at the time of diagnosis, and the majority of cases occurred in women. Gall‐stones were present in all except one patient in whom this could be verified. The prognosis, as in other series, proved to be very gloomy, and 61 per cent. of all cases were dead within three months of presentation. The three patients who survived longer than eighteen months, had lesions which were diagnosed as carcinoma only when the specimens were opened after operation. The incidence of carcinoma of the gall‐bladder in 0·5 per cent. of consecutiveroutine autopsies and 3·7 per cent. of patients undergoing surgery for gall‐bladder disease, is greater than in most reported series. The question of cholecystectomy for symptomless gall‐stones is discussed, and it is concluded that in otherwise fit patients this should be recommended, not only because of the risk of carcinoma, but also because of the numerous other troubles and hazards to which these patients are exposed. The more radical surgical approach to established disease by means of right hepatic lobectomy must have a very limited place in view of the age and poor general condition of the majority of patients.