Differential diagnosis and surgery for gallbladder carcinoma and xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis

Gallbladder carcinoma (GC) is the most common malignant tumor in bile duct system. Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (XGC) is a benign inflammatory gallbladder disease. It is often misdiagnosed between them. This paper, through reviewing the literature and summarizing our own clinical experience, will give a better understanding on the two diseases, which was summarized as follows: inflammation is important both in the pathogenesis of GC and XGC, and we can make the correct diagnosis and choose an appropriate treatment by analyzing the feature of disease history, image data and rapid intrao-perative pathological diagnosis. Radical resection remains the first choice in the treatment of GC, but the extent of resection is controversial. Normally, cholecystectomy is sufficient for curing XGC, but different surgeries are needed according to the specific disease conditions. Key words: Gallbladder carcinoma; Xanthogranulo-matous cholecystitis; Diagnosis; Surgical treatment