GALLSTONES SPILT AT LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY - A NEW CAUSE OF INTRAPERITONEAL GRANULOMAS

A case of a 32 year old woman with a foreign body-type granulomatous r eaction to gallstones spilt at previous laparoscopic cholecystectomy i s reported. The patient presented with hard nodules within the omentum at a subsequent Caesarean section, raising the possibility of metasta tic tumour. Histological examination showed gallstones with an associa ted foreign body-type granulomatous reaction. With increasingly widesp read use of laparoscopic surgery and relatively common spillage of gal lstones at surgery, it is Likely that histopathologists will encounter this condition more frequently in the future, both in surgical biopsy specimens and at necropsy.