Gall bladder carcinoma in a young male – a rare presentation

Abstract

Gallbladder carcinoma in a setting of acute cholecystitis is very rare occurrence in young patients (younger than 30 years).Moreover a definitive preoperative diagnosis is difficult. The purpose of this report is to present an unusual case of gallbladder carcinoma in a patient who presented with acute cholecystitis. A 27 year old male presented to the casualty with pain in the right hypochondriacregion for which he was admitted and evaluated and was diagnosed as suffering from acute calculous cholecystitis. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was done and the histopathology was suggestive of gallbladder adenocarcinoma. Conclusion: Carcinoma of the gallbladder is an aggressive malignancy which occurs predominantly in elderly people. Besides the exceptional cases detected incidentally at the time of cholecystectomy for gallstone disease, which are usually early stage, the prognosis for most patients is poor. Unfortunately, many of these tumors are unresectable at presentation, and most must be managed nonoperatively.Gallbladder carcinoma is a rare occurrence and is to be suspected in patients with complaints of cholelithiasis for long duration and histopathological examination of the cholecystectomy specimens has to be routinely carried out.