Clinicopathological study of carcinoma gallbladder and its management: a prospective study in a tertiary care hospital in Central India

Background: Gallbladder cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy of the biliary system having the shortest median survival rate. Being aggressive biological nature and lack of sensitive screening test for early detection it has a poor prognosis. Aim: The purpose is to study the relative frequency of gallbladder cancer in reference to age, sex, etiological factors, clinical signs and symptoms in relation to the stages and the outcomes of different treatment modalities. Methods: This study is observational and conducted in the Department of General Surgery Gandhi Medical College and Aassociated Hamidia Hospital, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, during the period of 2017-2019. all patients who came themselves to OPD were evaluated further. Results: This study shows that majority of the patients were elderly females. Most of them presented with pain in the right hypochondrium found in 78 patients (78%), nausea and vomiting in 36 patients (36%), and jaundice in 30 patients (30%). Tenderness in the right hypochondrium (85%), anemia (78%) followed by weight loss (68%) were the three commonest signs. In radiological investigations (USG and CECT) gallstones were observed in 74 patients (74%) and 75 patients (75%) have gallbladder mass, liver metastasis was seen in 56 patients (56%). Adenocarcinoma was the most common histopathological type reported in 92 patients (92%). Most of the patients (72%) have the disease at an advanced stage at the time of diagnosis which was inoperable. Conclusion: Gallbladder cancer is an aggressive malignancy of the biliary tract and has high case fatality with shortest median survival rates.