Dissemination of latent colon adenocarcinoma after laparoscopic cholecystectomy

The seeding of neoplasms at trocar sites has been reported with increasing frequency. A case is presented of a 68 year-old woman with metastatic seeding of nondiagnosed colon cancer at the umbilical trocar site used for a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Histopathological examination showed metastatic adenocarcinoma probably of gastrointestinal origin. A colonoscopy performed at the same time revealed a 2-cm lesion at the hepatic flexure which was shown histologically to be a differentiated adenocarcinoma. Diffuse peritoneal carcinomatosis was also found on computerised tomography. It is presumed that the primary colon cancer existed prior to cholecystectomy.