LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY HAMPERS THE STUDY OF GALLBLADDER MUCOSA - A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY IN CHOLECYSTECTOMY SAMPLES

Laparoscopic gallbladder surgery damages gallbladder mucosa, impeding an adequate histological examination. We studied gallbladder samples c oming from 56 conventional and 44 laparoscopic cholecystectomies perfo rmed in patients with chronic cholecystitis without signs of acute inf lammation. The length of each examined sample and the length of the po rtion where superficial epithelia was not found was measured. No diffe rences in sample length was found between both types of cholecystectom y. However, the segment with superficial mucosa was significantly shor ter in the samples coming from laparoscopic surgery. Seventeen samples did not contain mucosa at all and 14 of these (82%) came from laparos copic procedures. Eighty six percent of samples coming from laparoscop ic surgery were considered inadequate for histological study compared to 36% of samples coming from conventional cholecystectomy. It is conc luded that laparoscopic cholecystectomy hampers the study of gallbladd er mucosa and may have an impact on the diagnosis of neoplastic gallbl adder lesions.