Carcinoma of the gallbladder – incidence and prevalence

Introduction: Carcinoma of the gallbladder is the fifth most common malignancy of the gastrointestinal tract. Duration of the cholelithiasis is e crucial factor to development gallbladder carcinoma, and cholelithiasis is present in 70%- 90% patients with gallbladder carcinoma.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and prevalence of gallbladder Carcinoma in our clinic, perform conventional ultrasound.

Material and methods: We analyzed in retrospective study all referred patient in our clinic in period of five- years (2001–2005) Ultrasound has been performed with ultrasound equipment Aloka 4000 color Doppler with convex transducer 3,5–7MHz., according standard ultrasound criteria. Each patient was stored in patient created database, and classified by, age, gender.

Results: During period of five years we had 9680 patient, 55 of them were with gallbladder carcinoma. Female were 73%, male 27%.We found hepatic metastases in 34% of them, and 14% of them were with enlarge lymph nodes. Definitive diagnosis were verificated in 90% of patients (biopsy, NMR, CT)

Conclusions: Ultrasound is very sensitive and specific method to detect gallbladder carcinoma. Incidence and prevalence of gallbladder carcinoma in our country, according to the number of citizens (150.000) is very high

Key words: Ultrasound, gallbladder, carcinoma