Case Reports

Malign melanoma of gall bladder: Case report

  • Muharrem Battal
  • Sabahattin Destek
  • Mine Güllüoğlu
  • Oğuzhan Karatepe
  • Bora Koç
  • Osman Bilgin Gülçiçek

Received Date: 12.12.2008 Accepted Date: 07.04.2009 Med J Bakirkoy 2009;5(4):166-169

Malign melanom is a disease affecting many organs but rarely seen in gallbladder. Distinction of isolated tumors from primary gallbladder tumors or metastatic disease can not be made in most cases. Mainly the complaints of acute cholecystitis appears. Mostly this clinical condition is not doubted when the primary tumor is not found. In cases with poor prognosis , very few patients benefit from surgery. The role of surgery is limited in malign melanoma of gallbladder because of low experience. Different surgical procedures should be applied to primary gallbladder melanoma and metastatic disease. Patients should be evaluated in a multidisciplinary manner with new therapeutic methods. We report here on an unusual case of gallbladder melanoma that was diagnosed by pathological examination in 46-year-old woman.

Keywords: Gallbladder, malign melanoma, laparoscopy, cholecystectomy