[Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis: retrospective analysis of 6 cases]

Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (CX) is a rare kind of chronic cholecystitis, not yet reported in our media, characterized by the presence of chronic, inflammatory infiltration, formation of granulomas, with fibrosis and severe histiocytic reaction with macrophages rich in foam cells. The object of this study is to establish the clinical, radiological and histopathological pattern of CX, by means of the analysis of 6 cases identified in a retrospective check of 191 medical histories of cholecystectomized patients suffering from anatomopathological diagnosis of chronic cholecystitis, in the Department of Abdomen of the Institute of Neoplastic Diseases, from 1939 to 2004. The clinical presentation was characterized by the presence of a palpable mass on physical examination and weight loss. There were complications in two patients. The ultrasonigraph, tomograph and/or laparotomy scans of the vesicle were similar in appearance to a locally advanced vesicular cancer. In none of the specimens was the coexistence of a vesicular carcinoma identified. The vesicle was dried out in block with adjacent hepatic parenchyma in all cases. The CX can simulate a hepatobiliary malignant neoplasia and require suitable oncological surgical treatment. In cases of vesicular tumors, which can be considered inoperable there is the possibility of being faced with a xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis (CX), a benign condition treatable with surgery.