[Sonography of gallbladder carcinoma. Correlation with surgical findings in 60 cases]

60 patients with carcinoma of the gallbladder were staged preoperatively by sonography (staging scheme by Nevin and TNM scheme of the UICC). This was correlated with the operative and histopathological findings. The tumour was diagnosed by sonography in 70% of the patients, 15% were diagnosed at operation and 15% histopathologically. The criterion for malignancy was tumour invasion into the liver (94.7% Sensitivity) and/or into adjacent tissues (36.8% Sensitivity). Most tumours were in an advanced stage (98.5%) and only one early carcinoma (1.5%) was found histopathologically. No improvement in the diagnosis of early carcinomas was achieved by ultrasound in our series.