New Delhi: Doctors at a private hospital have managed an unusual and complex case where a patient, suspected of having a cancerous tumour, was instead found with 838 stones in her gallbladder.
Ms Pushpa had been experiencing acute stomach pain along with intermittent episodes of fever. She was feverish and in extreme pain when she came to the hospital recently and was advised to undergo an ultrasound and CT scan. The results of the tests suggested that she might be suffering from cancer of the gallbladder.
A team of specialists at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh performed a two-hour laparoscopic procedure in January this year. The patient’s gallbladder was “extremely inflated” and has grown to “six times its original size.”
As per plan, this was a laparoscopic surgery wherein her gallbladder would be removed with part of the adjacent liver and sent for immediate pathological examination (frozen section).
The gallbladder specimen was removed in a pouch to avoid contamination and spillage. However, post removal, when the doctors opened the gallbladder to look at what was inside before sending it for biopsy, they discovered, much to their shock and astonishment, that it was filled with several hundred small and large gallstones. In total, there were 838 gallstones.
“Gallstones cause inflammation of the gallbladder and can cause severe pain, symptoms of indigestion and complications like blockage of the bile duct leading to jaundice, severe infection, and pancreatitis. They are also commonly found in patients with gallbladder cancer implying a possible causation. This patient had only stones and her biopsy report was negative,” said Dr Amit Javed, consultant, gastrointestinal surgery, Fortis Hospital.
“Cancers of the gallbladder are very aggressive in nature and usually get detected only in the final stages of the disease since they present with vague symptoms which are not taken seriously. The only remedy to both gallstones as well as cancer of the gallbladder is complete removal of the organ,” he added.
