A Case Report of a Vascular Rich Inflammatory Gallbladder Polyp that was Indistinguishable from a Carcinoma

Keisuke Okamura, Mitsuhiro Tomiyama, Masato Suzuoki, Satoshi Kondo* and Hiroyuki Katoh*

Department of Surgery, Kiyota Hospital
Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine*

A 77-year-old woman admitted for liver dysfunction was found in abdominal ultrasonography to have a 16×9 mm polyp in the gallbladder. A color doppler ultrasonography suggested that the polyp had a pulsating blood flow. Abdominal enhanced CT enhanced the lesion, confirmed by angiography showing tumor staining. We conducted open cholecystectomy because it was difficult to differentiate this lesion from cancer. Pathologically, the polyp was inflammatory with rich vessels in the interstitium. This case shows that measurement of maximum blood flow with the ultrasonic doppler flowmeter, is useful. Cholesterosis in the gallbladder mucosa is likely related to pathogenesis of an inflammatory polyp.

Key words
inflammatory polyp, gallbladder, ultrasonic doppler flowmeter

Reprint requests
Keisuke Okamura Department of Surgery, Kiyota Hospital
1-1-1-1 Shinei, Kiyota-ku, Sapporo, 004-0831 JAPAN

Accepted
January 26, 2005

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