Histopathological review of cholecystectomy specimens in a Tertiary Hospital in Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: Diseases of the gall bladder are relatively common ranging from inflammation to neoplastic conditions. While the inflammatory  conditions are rife in our environment, the neoplastic ones are generally rare. Our study aims to analyse the pattern of gall bladder lesions from cholecystectomy specimens submitted to the pathology department of our hospital. This is because not much has been done in this regard.

Methodology: A retrospective study was undertaken to review all the cholecystectomy specimens submitted to the Department of pathology of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana from January 2009 to December 2014. Data regarding age, sex, clinical diagnosis and histological diagnosis were retrieved from the surgical daybook. This was analysed with SPSS version 21 and observation drawn were put in tables and figures.

Results: Our patients were in the age range of 1-88 years with mean age of 46.04 years. There were 34 males and 148 females with M:F ratio 1:4.4. Cholecystectomy specimens were reviewed over a 6-year period. Cholecystitis 129 cases, cholelithiasis 46 cases, 7 cases (0.04%) were malignant,  male 1, female 6 with age range 49-75 years, mean 64 years. All were adenocarcinomas with 5 well differentiated (Grade 1) and 2 poorly differentiated (Grade 3) tumours and all were associated with gall stones.

Conclusion: This study showed that the indication for cholecystectomy in our centre is inflammatory gall bladder lesions and that cancer of the gall bladder is very rare in our environment.

Keywords: cholecystectomy, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, adenocarcinoma, histopathology