Incidental Gallbladder Carcinoma Discovered after Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: Identifying Patients Who will Benefit from Reoperation

Background: Despite an early radical reoperation, recurrence and poor survival are observed in up to 40% of patients with an incidentally discovered gallbladder carcinoma (I-GBC) after undergoing a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). This study seeks to identify prognostic factors after re-I-GBC resection. Methods: A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained patient database with patients who were undergoing resection for I-GBC from January 1995 to March 2017 was performed. Prognostic factors for survival were assessed by multivariate Cox analysis. Results: There were 50 consecutive patients (median age 64 years; range 38–82) undergoing reoperation 45 ± 30 days after LC. Re-resection entailed a major hepatectomy in five patients (10%) and lymphadenectomy in all patients. Ninety-day morbidity and mortality were 22 and 2%, respectively. Lymph node (LN) involvement was present in 24 (48%) patients with a mean of 5.79 ± 14.4 LN+. Median overall survival was 40 months with 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year survival rates of 80, 50, 41 and 36%, respectively. Independent risk factors for overall survival were T3 tumours (HR = 7.58; 95% confidence intervals (CI), 2.41–23.83.) and LN involvement (HR = 3.66; 95% CI, 1.42–9.45). Patients presenting with zero, one and two risk factors had 3-year survival rates of 85, 31 and 0%, respectively, and median overall survival of 80, 22 and 13 months, respectively (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: After I-GBC discovery following an LC, T3 tumours and tumours with LN+ are characterised by poor prognosis. The presence and the identification of these prognostic factors help identify patients in need of alternative perioperative treatments.