Advances in the diagnosis of polypoid lesions of the gallbladder

  Gallbladder polypoid lesions are common occupying lesions of the gallbladder in clinical practice, and can be classified into two categories: tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic lesions according to pathology. Generally speaking, if the diagnosis is clear that the lesion is tumorigenic, it should be treated surgically, while for non-tumorigenic lesions, surgical treatment can be disregarded or can be observed.  At present, with the development of imaging, especially the development of ultrasonography, it is possible to clearly diagnose tumorigenic or non-tumorigenic lesions before surgery. Compared with color Doppler ultrasound, ultrasonography can clearly show the blood flow signal and microvascular circulation in the lesion, i.e. whether the lesion is rich in blood supply or not, and also enhance the gray scale signal of the surrounding tissue to determine the nature of the lesion.  The procedure of ultrasonography is as follows: first, fasting routine ultrasound Doppler examination is performed to observe the location, size, echo and blood supply of the gallbladder polyp-like lesion, followed by Sono Vue, an ultrasound contrast agent, to perform continuous multi-angle continuous scanning of the gallbladder polyp-like lesion, with the normal gallbladder wall and surrounding liver parenchyma as reference, and 5 min dynamic observation of the gallbladder and The enhancement performance of the lesion is recorded and then analyzed to determine the enhancement pattern of the lesion and thus make a diagnosis.  Ultrasonography has two types of performance: First, the lesion is not rich in blood supply, contrast filling is seen throughout the imaging, and the arterial phase is synchronized with the surrounding gallbladder wall with uniform enhancement, but the enhancement is higher than that of the liver parenchyma at the same time, and it always shows uniform enhancement in the delayed phase. Second, the lesion is rich in blood supply and shows rapid and heterogeneous enhancement in the arterial phase, which is stronger than that of the surrounding gallbladder wall.  Generally speaking, non-surgical conservative treatment can be considered for gallbladder polyp-like lesions presenting the first manifestation mentioned above, regardless of whether the lesion is larger than 10 mm or not. For those who show the second manifestation above by ultrasonography, early surgery should be performed regardless of the size of the lesion.  Although ultrasonography has the above advantages, it still cannot make a qualitative diagnosis of gallbladder polyp-like lesions, and for those with polyp-like lesions to be resected, this test can be performed during surgery to decide whether to operate early or to observe for a period of time before surgery.