Gallbladder cancer, experience in the General Surgery Service of the Itauguá National Hospital since 2010 to 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Gallbladder cancer is an infrequent neoplasm worldwide, except for countries where mortality from its cause is high, such as Chile. Despite this, it is the most common biliary tumor, with an approximate incidence of 0.8-1.2% and almost exclusively in women. Objectives: To describe the frequency, demographic profile, clinic, treatment and anatomopathological findings of gallbladder cancer in patients of the Itauguá National Hospital from 2010 to 2020. Materials and methods: 19 biopsy-confirmed cases were found, but only 15 files were complete. The study was retrospective, descriptive and observational, non-probabilistic cross-sectional sampling. Results: Of the final sample (N=15), 13 patients are women; the average age was 60 years. Of the total, 4 patients were admitted for scheduled surgery with a diagnosis of chronic gallstone gallbladder disease and the other 11 had suspected gallbladder tumor and/or jaundice or acute cholangitis of probable neoplastic origin, all were operated on, the most frequent reason for consultation was pain in the hypochondrium right, 99% were adenocarcinomas by pathology. Conclusion: The main etiology of gallbladder cancer was cholelithiasis, it has a low incidence nationwide, most of our patients were in terminal stages, or with little opportunity for R0 resection, for which they have a poor prognosis and up to today they are difficult to detect in the initial stage. In some cases, such as in 4 of our patients, the diagnosis is fortuitous through the histological finding in cholecystectomy specimens that were initially operated on for benign pathology.