Clinical features of Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis

Abstract

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XGC) is a variant of chronic cholecystitis characterized by thickened gallbladder wall resulting in the development of a granulomatous inflammation and the difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). To determine the clinical characteristics of XGC, we retrospectively examined 13 patients who had underwent LC. Previously, all of the patients contacted cholecystitis or cholangitis as initial symptom, but no one had performed emergency surgery at the acute phase of the inflammation. The comparison with the 13 patients of XGC and 46 patients of acute gangrenous cholecystitis (GC) performed emergency LC had appeared that although there was no significant difference in degree of inflammation, difficulty of LC was harder XGC than GC. From consideration of clinical history of 13 XGC patients, XGC might be occur in the period from the acute cholecystitis to the chronic cholecystitis. Aggressively performing LC to acute cholecystitis in the early phase might be contribute to preventing to the occurrence of XGC and reducing the difficulty of LC.