Recurrent gallbladder carcinoma along laparoscopic cholecystectomy port tracks: CT demonstration

Urachus adenocarcinoma mistaken for umbilical incision implant cancer after laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a case report

Umbilical incision implant cancer after LC is rare. Elective cholecystectomy was planned for a 49 years-old female patient with symptomatic gallstones. The patient underwent transumbilical single-port LC after admission to our hospital. Gallbladder specimens were obtained directly through the umbilical puncture hole, and histopathology suggested chronic cholecystitis. Three months after surgery, the patient experienced painful induration in the umbilicus. We initially considered incision scar hyperplasia complicated with pain, and used drugs to treat it conservatively without taking special treatment measures. Six months after LC, the umbilical induration pain affected her quality of life, and the patient requested surgical resection. Preoperative ultrasonography and abdominal computerized tomography (CT) revealed nodular changes around the umbilicus and no abdominal mass. Local resection of the periumbilical mass was performed, and the pathological confirmation was invasive adenocarcinoma. Subsequently, the patient underwent repeat periumbilical mass enlargement resection. Postoperative pathology showed no cancer at the enlarged resection margin, yet the umbilical center pathology showed invasive adenocarcinoma. The excised pathology was sent to the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center for consultation because of the rare nature of the findings associated with the case. After consultation, a diagnosis of umbilical urachus adenocarcinoma was confirmed based on pathological morphology, immunohistochemistry, and the specific anatomical location of the tumor. This case report shown that when there is a persistent mass induration in the navel after LC surgery, the possibility of incision tumor should be considered, rather than simply excluding the possibility of a cancer based on a non-cancer medical history.

Degree of biliary tract violation during treatment of gallbladder adenocarcinoma is independently associated with development of peritoneal carcinomatosis

BACKGROUND

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is often incidentally diagnosed after cholecystectomy. Intra-operative biliary tract violations (BTV) have been recently associated with development of peritoneal disease (PD). The degree of BTV may be associated with PD risk, but has not been previously investigated.

METHODS

We reviewed patients with initially non-metastatic GBC treated at our institution from 2003 to 2018. Patients were grouped based on degree of BTV during their treatment: major (e.g., cholecystotomy with bile spillage, n = 27, 29%), minor (e.g., intra-operative cholangiogram, n = 18, 19%), and no violations (n = 48, 55%). Overall survival (OS) and peritoneal disease-free survival (PDFS) were evaluated with Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards modeling.

RESULTS

Ninety-three patients were identified; the median age was 64 years (range 31-87 years). Seventy-six (82%) were incidentally diagnosed. The median follow-up was 23 months; 20 (22%) patients developed PD. The 3-year PDFS for patients with major, minor, and no BTV was 52%, 83%, and 98%, respectively (major vs. none: p <  0.001; minor vs. none: p <  0.01). BTV was not associated with 5-year OS (HR 1.53, p =  0.16).

CONCLUSION

Increasing degree of BTV is associated with higher risk of peritoneal carcinomatosis in patients with GBC and should be considered during preoperative risk stratification. Reporting biliary tract violations during cholecystectomy is encouraged.

Gallbladder cancer revisited: the evolving role of a radiologist

Gallbladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract. It is also the most aggressive biliary tumor with the shortest median survival duration. Complete surgical resection, the only potentially curative treatment, can be accomplished only in those patients who are diagnosed at an early stage of the disease. Majority (90%) of the patients present at an advanced stage and the management involves a multidisciplinary approach. The role of imaging in gallbladder cancer cannot be overemphasized. Imaging is crucial not only in detecting, staging, and planning management but also in guiding radiological interventions. This article discusses the role of a radiologist in the diagnosis and management of gallbladder cancer.

Complicated cholecystitis: the complementary roles of sonography and computed tomography

Acute cholecystitis is a common cause of abdominal pain in the Western world. Unless treated promptly, patients with acute cholecystitis may develop complications such as gangrenous, perforated, or emphysematous cholecystitis. Because of the increased morbidity and mortality of complicated cholecystitis, early diagnosis and treatment are essential for optimal patient care. Nevertheless, complicated cholecystitis may pose significant challenges with cross-sectional imaging, including sonography and computed tomography (CT). Interpreting radiologists should be familiar with the spectrum of sonographic findings seen with complicated cholecystitis and as well as understand the complementary role of CT. Worrisome imaging findings for complicated cholecystitis include intraluminal findings (sloughed mucosa, hemorrhage, abnormal gas), gallbladder wall abnormalities (striations, asymmetric wall thickening, abnormal gas, loss of sonoreflectivity and contrast enhancement), and pericholecystic changes (echogenic fat, pericholecystic fluid, abscess formation). Finally, diagnosis of complicated cholecystitis by sonography and CT can guide alternative treatments including minimally invasive percutaneous and endoscopic options.

Regenerative therapy after cancer: what are the risks?

There is often a pressing need for reconstruction after cancer surgery. Regenerative therapy holds the promise of more natural and esthetic functional tissue. In the case of breast reconstruction postmastectomy, volume retention problems associated with autologous fat transfer could be ameliorated by augmentation with cells capable mediating rapid vascularization of the graft. Intentional placement of regenerating tissue at the site of tumor resection raises questions concerning the possibility of promoting cancer recurrence. Here we review coculture and animal models of tumor/mesenchymal stem cell interactions under regenerating conditions. Available evidence from case reports, cell lines, and clinical isolates favors the interpretation that regenerating tissue promotes the growth of active, high-grade tumor. In contrast, dormant cancer cells do not appear to be activated by the complex signals accompanying wound healing and tissue regeneration, suggesting that engineered tissue reconstruction should be deferred until cancer remission has been firmly established.

Management of gallbladder cancer

Resection is a means of improving survival in patients with gallbladder cancer. A more aggressive surgical approach, including resection of the gallbladder, liver, and regional lymph nodes, is advisable for patients with T1b to T4 tumors. Aggressive resection is necessary because a patient's gallbladder cancer stage determines the outcome, not the surgery itself. Therefore, major resections should be offered to appropriately selected patients. Patients with advanced tumors or metastatic disease are not candidates for radical resection and thus should be directed to more suitable palliation.

Gallbladder carcinoma manifesting as acute cholecystitis: clinical and computed tomographic features

BACKGROUND

Gallbladder carcinoma is uncommon and may manifest as acute cholecystitis. An accurate diagnosis is helpful for operative planning and this study attempted to explore the distinctive clinical and computed tomographic (CT) features for differentiating acute cholecystitis alone from that with contemporaneous gallbladder carcinoma.

METHODS

This 20-year, retrospective study evaluated the CT features of 26 patients with surgically proven gallbladder carcinoma with clinical presentations of acute cholecystitis (carcinoma group). Thirty elderly patients with surgically proven simple acute cholecystitis were enrolled as age-matched controls (cholecystitis group). The clinical, laboratory, and CT findings were compared between the 2 groups.

RESULTS

The carcinoma and cholecystitis groups showed no significant differences with respect to clinical symptoms (abdominal pain, fever, and jaundice), serum total bilirubin level, leukocyte count, percentage of segmented leukocytes, presence of gallstones, and CT features of pericholecystic stranding/fluid and focally increased enhancement of adjacent liver. Fifteen of the 26 (57.6%) patients in the carcinoma group exhibited diffuse gallbladder wall thickening on CT and the other 11 exhibited focal thickening or intraluminal masses. Beside female predominance, the patients in the carcinoma group had significantly higher serum aspartate/alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase levels, a thicker gallbladder wall, smaller volume, lower frequency of triple-layer gallbladder wall enhancement pattern, and a higher frequency of enlarged regional lymph nodes than those in the cholecystitis group.

CONCLUSION

For elderly patients, especially women, presenting with acute cholecystitis and abnormal liver function, CT demonstration of focal gallbladder wall thickening, intraluminal masses, small gallbladder with diffuse wall thickening, and enlarged regional lymph nodes are suggestive of concurrent gallbladder carcinoma. Triple-layer gallbladder wall enhancement is suggestive of simple acute cholecystitis.

The use of imaging in the diagnosis and staging of hepatobiliary malignancies

This review addresses the optimal use of imaging in the diagnosis, staging, and treatment planning of patients with hepatobiliary neoplasms. We focus on primary liver cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma as well as extrahepatic biliary tract malignancies, including hilar cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer. In each section, we provide an overview of the staging requirements for each disease followed by a discussion of various imaging modalities that can be used to optimally stage the disease and plan therapy.

Postlaparoscopic Abdominal Port-Site Metastasis: F-18 FDG PET/CT Demonstration

Laparoscopic surgery has expanded its applications to treatment of malignant neoplasms with lower morbidity and mortality compared with the ones carried by conventional procedures. With the increasing volume of this minimally invasive technique, complications such as port-site tumor seeding may have a higher occurrence. Abdominal wall metastasis has been reported with conventional cross-sectional imaging. The authors present 2 cases of early detection of port-site tumor implantation by PET/CT.

Management of cancer gallbladder found as a surprise on a resected gallbladder specimen

Carcinoma gallbladder is associated with an overall 5-year survival rate reported less than 5% due to late diagnosis. Advent of ultrasound scanning may help in detecting gallbladder polyps and an early gallbladder cancer. Excellent 5-year survival (up to 100%) has been reported for Stage Ia disease and the survival has significantly improved for Stage Ib, II, and III if appropriate re-operation is carried out soon after the incidental detection of gallbladder cancer. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is contraindicated in the presence of gallbladder cancer. It is recommended to excise all laparoscopic port sites, at the time of re-operation. Re-operation for Stage II gallbladder cancer is associated with a 90-100% 3-year survival rate. Patients with Stage III and IV tumors also benefit from an extended cholecystectomy. Patients with bulky primary tumors without lymph node metastases (T4N0) seem to have a better prognosis than those with distant lymph node metastases, and should be treated aggressively. It is advantageous to perform the appropriate extent of surgery for gallbladder cancer at the initial operation. Heightened awareness of the presence of cancer and the knowledge of appropriate management are important. For patients whose cancer is an incidental finding on pathologic review, re-resection is indicated for all disease except Stage Ia. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy have not been found effective as an adjuvant or palliative therapy in gallbladder cancer.

Imaging findings of biliary and nonbiliary complications following laparoscopic surgery

Laparoscopic techniques are evolving for a wide range of surgical procedures although they were initially confined to cholecystectomy and exploratory laparoscopy. Recently, surgical procedures performed with a laparoscope include splenectomy, adrenalectomy, gastrectomy, and myomectomy. In this article, we review the spectrum of complications and illustrate imaging features of biliary and nonbiliary complications after various laparoscopic surgeries. Biliary complications following laparoscopic cholecystectomy include bile ductal obstruction, bile leak with bile duct injury, dropped stones in the peritoneal cavity, retained CBD stone, and port-site metastasis. Nonbiliary complications are anastomotic leakage after partial gastrectomy, gangrenous cholecystitis after gastrectomy, hematoma at the anastomotic site following gastrectomy, gastric infarction after gastrectomy, port-site metastasis after gastrectomy, hematoma after splenectomy, renal infarction after adrenalectomy, and active bleeding after myomectomy of the uterus.

Gallbladder carcinoma: a retrospective analysis of twenty-two years experience of a single teaching hospital

Background

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate our experience with gallbladder cancer since the establishment of a tumour registry in our institute.

Methods

Between 1975 and 1998, 23 consecutive patients with gallbladder cancer were identified using the tumour registry database. There were 18 females (78%) and 5 (22%) males. The mean age at diagnosis was 70.6 (range 42–85) years. The diagnosis was achieved either intra-operatively or following the histological analysis of the gallbladder (n = 17), following gallbladder or liver biopsy (n = 4) or at autopsy (n = 2). Presenting symptoms included upper abdominal pain, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, fever, painless jaundice, hepatomegaly, upper abdominal mass, upper abdominal tenderness, and gastrointestinal haemorrhage.

Results

Histological examination revealed 20 adenocarcinomas (87%), 2 squamous cell carcinomas (9%) and one spindle cell sarcoma (4%). At presentation, 14 (61%) gallbladder cancers were stage IV, 5 (22%) were stage III and 4 (17%) were stage II. Kaplan Meier analysis revealed a mean survival of 3.2, 7.8 and 8.2 months for stage IV, III, and II disease respectively. Out of 14 patients with stage IV disease, 8 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and survived for 4.6 months whereas six patients who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy survived for 1.3 months. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.04).

Conclusion

The majority of patients with gallbladder cancer presented with advanced stage disease (stage IV) which carries a dismal prognosis. Patients who received chemotherapy with stage IV disease, however, did better than those who did not, but this is probably a reflection of patient selection.

Subcutaneous pigmented villonodular synovitis caused by portal contamination during knee arthroscopy and open synovectomy

The etiology of pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is not clear. Researchers have suggested that localized nodular synovitis is an inflammatory process, but more recent studies tend to describe the lesion as benign synovial neoplasm with the potential of local recurrence. Although the theoretical risk of secondarily seeding the remainder of the knee is evident, this is the first report of a subcutaneous PVNS caused by portal contamination during knee arthroscopy and open synovectomy. It supports a neoplastic origin of this lesion.

Surgical indications and extent of resection in gallbladder cancer

Gallbladder cancer often is diagnosed at an advanced stage when the prognosis is dismal. Early tumors (T1) that are recognized incidentally are curable with simple cholecystectomy alone. All other tumors should be resected with an extended cholecystectomy (T2) or with an extensive liver resection that obtains the negative margins. Patients with tumors greater than T1 should undergo lymphadenectomy that includes the porta hepatis and superior pancreatic nodes. Long-term survival with this approach is possible, even with T3 and T4 tumors. The role of extended lymphadenectomy, including the retropancreatic and aortocaval basins, is unclear and should be attempted only in selected cases.

Trocar site recurrence in laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND

Laparoscopic colorectal surgery has been associated with less postoperative pain, an early return of bowel function, a shorter period of hospitalization and disability, and better cosmetic results. However, the application of laparoscopic techniques to the curative resection of colorectal cancer is still controversial, owing to reports of cancer recurrence at the port site wounds. The accumulation of numerous such reports in a relatively short period raised concern that there might be an extraordinary high rate of port site metastases after laparoscopic colorectal surgery. This concern has led to intense clinical and basic research aimed at determining the incidence and causes of wound recurrence and developing preventative measures to address this problem. Despite these efforts, it is still not clear whether port site metastasis is really an inherent drawback to laparoscopic cancer surgery.

METHODS

In this review of the literature on port site metastasis, we gathered data from clinical series of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer. We eliminated series of <50 patients, since they may be flawed by the learning curve required for this technically demanding procedure.

RESULTS

The rate of port site recurrences in the 1737 patients who participated in these series was 1%. Although the methods and criteria for patient selection in these studies varied, this figure appears to be comparable to the incidence reported for other malignancies and for laparotomies performed to treat colorectal cancer.

CONCLUSION

This review suggests that wound recurrence may actually be the result of an unfortunate learning curve, rather than an inherent concern. However, we must await the final results of large randomized studies before drawing any definitive conclusions.

Gallbladder carcinoma: radiologic-pathologic correlation

Primary carcinoma of the gallbladder is an uncommon, aggressive malignancy that affects women more frequently than men. Older age groups are most often affected, and coexisting gallstones are present in the vast majority of cases. The symptoms at presentation are vague and are most often related to adjacent organ invasion. Therefore, despite advances in cross-sectional imaging, early-stage tumors are not often encountered. Imaging studies may reveal a mass replacing the normal gallbladder, diffuse or focal thickening of the gallbladder wall, or a polypoid mass within the gallbladder lumen. Adjacent organ invasion, most commonly involving the liver, is typically present at diagnosis, as is biliary obstruction. Periportal and peripancreatic lymphadenopathy, hematogenous metastases, and peritoneal metastases may also be seen. The vast majority of gallbladder carcinomas are adenocarcinomas. Because most patients present with advanced disease, the prognosis is poor, with a reported 5-year survival rate of less than 5% in most large series. The radiologic differential diagnosis includes the more frequently encountered inflammatory conditions of the gallbladder, xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis, adenomyomatosis, other hepatobiliary malignancies, and metastatic disease.