ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) on the prognosis of unsuspected gallbladder cancer(GC).
Methods A retrospective clinicopathologic study was performed on 21 patients with unsuapective GC,but diagnosed gallbladder cancer postoperatively by pathology. Of which, 11patients underwent LC and 10 patients underwent open cholecystectomy (OC), The correlation was evaluated between cumulative survival rates and the following 5 prognostic factors: histopathological grade, pathologic stage, occurrence of bile spillage, type of cholecystectomy (LC or OC), and additional surgical treatments.
ResultsEight patients (73%) after LC and 7 patients (70%) after OC had cancer recurrence,and the difference was of no statistical significance (P=0.86). There were no recurrences of cancer in the abdominal wall after either LC or OC. Survival rate was statistically correlated to tumor stage (P=0.006),and to the occurrence of bile spillage (P=0.003). Survival rate did not differ according to whether the operation was carried out using LC or OC (P=0.74).
Conclusions LC does not worsen the prognosis of unsuspected gallbladder cancer.