A Case of Carcinosarcoma of the Gallbladder

Hironori Kobayashi*, Shigenori Sugihara, Takayuki Kaneko, Hiroaki Harada, Yoshiaki Ikuta, Tetsuhiro Egami and Mihoko Setoguchi**

*First Department of Surgery, Kumamoto University of Medicine
Department of Surgery, Department of Pathology**, Shimonoseki Welfare Social Hospital

A 56-year-old woman referred for right hypochondralgia with the diagnosis of a gallstone was found in abdominal ultrasonography (US) to have a strong echo with an acoustic shadow and gallbladder wall thickening. At laparotomy, we found a tumor in the body of the gallbladder. Histological examination of the tumor intraoperatively showed the presence of sarcoma, necessitating extended cholecystectomy. Histologically the resected specimen consisted of adenocarcinoma and a sarcomatous tumor of spindle-shaped cells. The woman remains alive without signs of recurrence 48 months after surgery.

Key words
carcinosarcoma of the gallbladder

Reprint requests
Hironori Kobayashi First Department of Surgery, Kumamoto University of Medicine 1-1-1 Honjyo, Kumamoto, 860-0811 JAPAN

Accepted
October 30, 2002

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.