Paraganglioma of gallbladder: a case report

Background: Paragangliomas are rare extra-adrenal neoplasms of neural crest origin. Although most of these lesions are of retroperitoneal origin, paragangliomas have been reported at a host of remote sites, including the urinary bladder, larynx, orbit and lung. In our review of the literature, we discovered only solitary case reports of such neoplasms involving the gallbladder and hepatic duct. Most of these were asymptomatic and were found incidentally during operation.
Case Report: We report two cases of paraganglioma in gallbladder. One of them is a 45-years-old man with a 2-months history of right upper quadrant abdominal pain and another is a 55-years-old woman admitted for cholecystectomy because of cholelithiasis.
Conclusions: In both cases medical history and physical examination were unremarkable. Serum chemistry values were normal. The specimens were interpreted as paraganglioma of the gallbladder. Immunohistochemical staining of the chief cells for neuron specific enolase and chromogranin were positive, and cytokeratine was negative.

Keywords: Cholecystitis, paraganglioma, Gallbladder