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©2009 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2009; 15(27): 3434-3436
Published online Jul 21, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.3434
Published online Jul 21, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.3434
Metastatic melanoma of the gallbladder: An unusual clinical presentation of acute cholecystitis
Spiridon Vernadakis, Georgios Rallis, Nikolaos Danias, Costas Serafimidis, Nikolaos Legakis, Georgios Peros, 4th Department of Surgery, Athens University School of Medicine, “Attikon” General Hospital, Rimini 1, 12462 Chaidari, Athens, Greece
Spiridon Vernadakis, Evangelos Christodoulou, Michail Troullinakis, Department of General Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Essen, Essen 45122, Germany
Author contributions: Vernadakis S and Legakis N designed the research; Vernadakis S, Rallis G, Serafimidis C and Legakis N performed the research; Danias N, Christodoulou E and Troullinakis M performed data analysis; Vernadakis S and Peros G contributed to data interpretation and made an important intellectualcontribution to the study.
Correspondence to: Spiridon Vernadakis, MD, Department of General Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Essen, Hufenlandstrasse 55, Essen 45122, Germany. spiridon.vernadakis@uk-essen.de
Telephone: +49-201-72385857
Fax: +49-201-7235631
Received: February 6, 2009
Revised: June 14, 2009
Accepted: June 21, 2009
Published online: July 21, 2009
Revised: June 14, 2009
Accepted: June 21, 2009
Published online: July 21, 2009
Abstract
Metastatic disease from cutaneous melanoma can affect all organs of the body, and varies in its biological behavior and clinical presentation. We present the case of a 58-year-old man who arrived at our clinic with acute abdominal pain, which, after investigation, was diagnosed as acute cholecystitis. The patient underwent laparotomy and cholecystectomy. Two years ago, he underwent surgical removal of a primary cutaneous melanoma on his right upper back. Pathological examination revealed the presence of malignant melanoma with a metastatic lesion of the gallbladder.