Xanthogranulomatous Cholecystitis: Our Clinical Experience

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis is a rarely encountered chronic inflammatory condition presenting with severely proliferated fibrotic tissue. It usually spreads the neighboring organs, imitates gallbladder cancer and may lead to difficulty in cholecystectomy.

The present study was directed towards reviewing the results of medical examinations and surgery for xan-thogranulomatous cholecystitis and providing proper surgical treatment for patients with xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis.

This is an observational study in which clinical features of thirty six patients with diagnosis of cholecystitis who were operated in our institute between 2012 and 2019 and found as xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis on pathology were analyzed.

The rate of xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis in cholecystectomy patients was found to be 0.6 % (36/5999) in the hospital where this study was performed over 7 years. Xanthogranu-lomatous cholecystitis was not accompanied by gallbladder carcinoma in any of these cases. Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis could not be diagnosed in any of the patients prior to surgery. Radiological imaging performed before surgery demonstrated cholelithiasis in 29 patients (80.6 %), thickening of the gallbladder wall in 28 patients (77.8%), and suspicious cancer in two patients (5.6%). However, none of the cases of xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis had concomitant gallbladder cancer. Nine (25%) patients underwent open cholecystectomy and Twenty seven patients (75 %) were scheduled to have laparoscopic cholecystectomy, but six of these patients (16,8%) were converted to open cholecystectomy.

To conclude, it is still difficult to distinguish xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis from other gallbladder diseases both before and during surgery. The gallbladder commonly adheres to the neighboring organs and tissues and make surgical treatment difficult. A challenging laparoscopy is commonly converted to open surgery, which results in higher rates of complications as compared with standard open or laparoscopic cholecystectomy.