Carcinoid tumour of gall bladder--a case report.

Gall bladder carcinoid tumours are rare, constituting less than 1% of all carcinoid tumours arising from different parts of the body. They usually lack specific symptoms as they typically are unassociated with the carcinoid syndrome, despite frequent hepatic spread and mostly detected after cholecystectomy. A case of gall bladder carcinoid is reported in a 35-year-old woman who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for clinical features of cholelithiasis. Several comparative evaluation was attempted mainly between the carcinoid and variant groups (endocrinomas) and occasionally between the typical and atypical carcinoid series to solve the existing serious problem in categorisation of this group of tumours. While the usual criteria for judging malignancy, such as anaplasia and mitotic figures, are unreliable in these sites of carcinoid tumour, malignancy is well determined from evidence of tumour invasion into adjacent structures. This rarity and the ambiguity around it stresses for its documentation and warrants for international agreements and standards on basic criteria for such classification of these endocrine carcinomas.