Heterotopic gastric mucosa in the gallbladder: case report and literature review

Abstract

Introduction: we report on a case of heterotopic gastric mucosa in the neck of the gallbladder and we also review 95 other reports of HGM in the gallbladder in the international medical literature from 1977.

Aim: to evaluate the gold standard treatment in heterotopic gastric mucosa of the gallbladder by the analysis of literature, compared with our anedoctal experience.

Patient and method: a 43-year-old man, who was recently symptomatic, visited our hospital to submit to laparoscopic cholecistectomy for cholelithiasis. Ultrasonography revealed a broad-based polypoid lesion in the gallbladder (2.5 cm in diameter in the neck of the gallbladder), whith multiple gallstones.

Results: standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed. The specimen revealed a 2.5 x 1.7 x 0.5 cm polypoid lesion with deep in the body, with many gallstones in the gallbladder. Histologically, the polypoid lesion consisted of gastric fundic glands located only in the mucosa of the gallbladder. The surrounding mucosa consisted of almost normal epithelium without any metaplastic changes. Postoperative technetium 99m-pertechnetate scintigraphy demonstrated no evidence of gastric heterotopia elsewhere in the body. Actually the patient is in long-time follow-up, asymptomatic.

Conclusions: for its extreme difficult to make a conclusive diagnosis and thereby rule out the possibility of cancer, it appears that laparoscopic cholecystectomy may be unavoidable for patients affected by heterotopic gastric mucosa at the present time and care must be taken when a diagnosis is made based on intraoperative frozen sections.