Overlap of Acute Cholecystitis with Gallstones and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Gallbladder in an Elderly Patient

Abstract

Introduction. The incidence of gallbladder cancer presenting with acute cholecystitis is 2.3%, squamous cell carcinoma is rarely seen, and overlap of acute cholecystitis and squamous cell carcinoma is a very rare condition in the literature. Presentation of Case. A 75-year-old woman was admitted to emergency service with a pain in the right upper quadrant, nausea, and vomiting. The patient was considered as having acute cholecystitis. During the exploration because Hartman’s pouch was not dissected, it was adhered to the cystic duct and had fibrotic adhesion. It could not be understood whether this adhesion was a tumor or a fibrotic tumor and thus we performed cholecystectomy with a 1 cm resection of the choledochus. Pathological examination revealed the presence of (R0), T1 N0 M0 squamous cell carcinoma with clean resection borders and there was no in tumor five dissected lymph nodes. The patient has been followed up for about two years and no clinical problem has been observed throughout the follow-up. Discussion. Acute cholecystitis with gallstones may overlap with gallbladder cancer and generally presents nonspecific symptoms. No additional imaging techniques were performed since no clinical sign except for the wall thickening was detected and no suspected malignancy such as mass was detected on USG. Squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder shows poor diagnosis, but since its overlap with cholecystitis presents early symptoms and thus leads to early diagnosis and effective treatment, the localization of the carcinoma is of prime importance. Conclusion. Gallbladder cancer should be kept in mind in elderly patients with acute cholecystitis.